Wyoming in Paris: Local Authors to Lead Left Bank Writers Retreat

Darla Worden announces return of her writing workshop in France, August 31-September 6, with Sheridan author Tyler Truman Julian as 2024 writer in residence

Denver, Colorado – March 28, 2024 – Two Wyoming authors, Darla Worden and Tyler Truman Julian, will be heading to Paris, August 31 – September 6, to lead the Left Bank Writers Retreat. Worden, a Sheridan native and author of the book Cockeyed Happy: Ernest Hemingway’s Wyoming Summers with Pauline, hosts the popular small-group writing workshop and literary travel experience, which she founded after spending time following in Hemingway’s Paris footsteps from his years living there in the 1920s. For the retreat’s 10th anniversary this year, Worden has announced that author and poet Tyler Truman Julian – a fellow Wyoming native and current Sheridan resident – will join her in France as 2024 writer in residence. The Left Bank Writers Retreat is currently taking reservations for the fall session, which is limited to eight writers.

“We’re excited to have Tyler join our group this year,” says Worden. “In addition to his own poetry and fiction writing, he brings multiple layers of experience to our daily plein-air writing sessions, including as an instructor in both college and community settings and as a professional editor. And, fun fact,” Worden adds, “Tyler was one of our Left Bank Writers Retreat attendees himself some years ago.”

Both Julian and Worden have published books that tie to their Wyoming heritage – and both look forward to the Left Bank Writers Retreat’s Paris camaraderie and fresh writing inspiration.

With a five-generation family history of Wyoming sheep ranching, Tyler Truman Julian is author of Wyoming: The Next Question to Ask (to Answer) (Finishing Line Press, 2019), a book of poetry that has been lauded by reviewers, including local author of the popular Longmire series Craig Johnson, who called Julian’s work “fierce testimony to a wild & flawed land.” A frequently published writer with an MFA in creative writing, Julian lives in Sheridan with his wife and young family, where he serves as English Faculty at Sheridan College. He also is Review Editor for the online poetry journal The Shore, and has facilitated community writing workshops around Wyoming, New Mexico, and online.

“The Left Bank Writers Retreat was life changing when I previously attended,” says Julian, who looks forward to sharing the experience with a new group of writers. “It cemented my desire to write, opened up education and career goals for me, and was just so much fun!”

Paris is the ultimate location for the Left Bank Writers Retreat’s signature mix of Hemingway-centric, one-on-one writing instruction and immersive literary travel experience, visiting the many cafes, parks and museums that Ernest Hemingway frequented when he arrived in the City of Light over 100 years ago. “Paris may seem a world away from Wyoming,” says author and Hemingway expert Worden, “but Hemingway loved—and wrote in—both places, and Tyler and I look forward to continuing that tradition with eight new writers this year as they work to improve writing skills and find inspiration in the city’s famous literary history.”

Writers of all levels – and in all genres – are invited to attend the Left Bank Writers Retreat in Paris. Tuition for this year’s August 31-September 6 session is $2,199 and includes morning workshops, breakfast, lunch each day at a specially selected restaurant, snacks, museum passes, literary tours, Seine boat ride, Metro tickets and a farewell dinner celebration. A sample itinerary of the daily activities can be seen here. Writers arrange their own lodging and transportation to Paris and can reserve their spot on the Left Bank Writers Retreat with a $500 deposit – fully refundable through July 1, 2024 – on the website registration page.

About the Left Bank Writers Retreat:
The Left Bank Writers Retreat was founded and is hosted by author, editor and Hemingway expert Darla Worden, whose lifelong obsession with Ernest Hemingway led her to Paris, where she founded the small-group writing workshop to share the city’s remarkable literary history, including the haunts and writing tips of Hemingway and other famous Left Bank Writers of the 1920s and 30s. Worden is editor in chief of Mountain Living magazine, has written widely for magazines and was a presenter at the Hemingway Society International Conference in 2022, speaking about the time Ernest Hemingway spent in Wyoming. Now entering its 10th year, the Left Bank Writers Retreat takes place August 31 – September 6, 2024, on the historic Île Saint-Louis in the heart of Paris. For information or to register, visit www.leftbankwriters.com or follow on Facebook (@leftbankwritersretreat).