Our Team
Leah Soeiro
President leah@parislitup.com
Leah Soeiro is a photographer, writer and translator based in Paris. She has a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Kent. She is the current President of Paris Lit Up and art editor for the magazine by the same name. She runs a creative writing workshop together with the writer Chris Newens. Her poems have been published in Sunbow zine, Feast and Tint Journal as well as other smaller publications. Her poetry-photography collection twentytwentytwentytwentyone is coming out with with Querencia Press in the fall of 2023. She teaches creative writing and theatre to children. She is currently working on a novel.
Ed Bell
Treasurer ed@parislitup.com
Ed Bell, born in Lancashire, studied at Oxford, educated by Paris, is one of the hosts of the PLU Open Mic the managing editor of PLU magazine. Since 2014, he has toured with Paris Lit Up to Italy, England and Holland. His first artistic collaboration in Paris was Blue Wit, translating the poems of Catullus over Bossa Nova rhythm guitar. He has accompanied live body paintings, poets, and singers on the piano.
www.egb2025.com
Helen Cusack O'Keeffe
Vice President www.hcusackokeeffe.com
Helen Cusack O'Keeffe's first degree was in Russian language and literature, she then became a mental health social worker. Based in Paris since 2008, her freelance work includes mental health assessments of child refugees, translations and editing Paris Lit Up Magazine. Her writing has been published in The Bastille, Gods Memes and Monsters (Stoneskin Press) and Strangers in Paris (Tightrope Press). Three of her plays have been produced in Paris and internationally. She co-founded the Damrémont Novel Writers Group in 2009, and hosts it weekly. She also creates decor and costumes for stage, video and print projects (including The Poetry Brothel of Paris, Le Farming Times). Her novel "The Orphan's Name" set in 1920s Galway, is nearing completion.
Clairette Durand-Gasselin
Secretary
Clairette Durand-Gasselin (@clairettedg) is a bilingual poet and visual artist. She has been the co-Founder and Artistic Director of Mad Gleam Press (NYC), and is now a Blog Editor and Secretary for Paris Lit Up. She studies Literary Translation at Université Paris Cité, and also works as a French teacher.
She writes in both French and English, and initiates dialogues between her literary and visual practices. Her work explores memory, rituals, and resonance with places. Publications include A Shape Produced by a Curve (anthology by Great Weather For Media), the Revue Miroir, the podcast Mange tes Mots and the website Synapse International.
Photo by Mitchell Murdock
Emily Ruck Keene
Poetry Editor emily@parislitup.com
Born in Oxford, UK, Emily moved to Paris in 2010. She has been volunteering for Paris Lit Up since 2012, just after it was first founded. She acted as Secretary and then Treasurer, before being elected as President in 2019. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English and French from the University of Warwick, England, and a Masters in Comparative Literature from the Sorbonne, Paris IV, France. She works as a translator and copywriter.
www.emily-rk.com
Ella Bartlett
Poetry Editor
Ella Bartlett (they/them) is an Iowan-born, New York-educated, Paris-based writer and translator. They are most notably the translator of Out of hope, a poetry collection by the French opera singer Elodie Félix-Kimmel. The recipient of the Gigantic Sequins Poetry Award of 2021, Ella’s work has been published, among others, in Indigo Literary Review, Jet Fuel Review, decomP Magazine, Necessary Fiction, Rust + Moth, and more.
@EllaTheRewriter
Photo by Lea Volta
Chris Newens
Workshop leader workshop@parislitup.com
Chris Newens is a British writer and journalist whose subjects include food, religion, and long walks. A long time Paris resident, he’s one of the hosts of PLU’s Right Bank Writers Group and a co-founder of the Fourplay theatre festival. Likes a drink and a chat.
Ursula Wynne
Open Mic Host
In July 1969, while Neil Armstrong Jones was setting foot on the Moon; one giant leap for mankind, Ursula Wynne, Dublin born and bred, was setting foot in Paris; one giant leap for her. After an aborted attempt to work her way around the world with three hippy, French brothers, almost freezing to death hitchhiking in Iceland in November, marrying the eldest of the trio in New York and spending 6 months in Greece recovering, she finally settled in Paris, where she studied dress-designing, had two children, 20 years apart, worked as a tourist guide, taught English as a second language, studied English at le Centre Universitaire Experimental de Vincennes and dabbled in theatre, tango, astrology and writing short stories.
Grant Chesin
Grant Chesin, a new member of the Paris Lit Up conseil, is a singer-songwriter from Elk Grove, California, based in Paris since 2022. His music is a mix of folk, soul, rock, and pop. He can be found playing shows throughout the city. His published songs have amassed thousands of listeners across numerous music platforms and he regularly releases new music.
@grantchesin
We would be nothing without…
Paris Lit Up relies on a team of dedicated volunteers in all of the activities it runs. Here is a non-exhaustive list of those so integral to what we do…
Elia Cohen
John Hicks
Mark Norman Harris
Shannon Cain
Johnny Bigoudis
And of course Paris Lit Up would never have existed without its founders Jason McGimsey and Kate Noakes.
Photo of Johnny Bigoudis by Leah Soeiro
FIND OUT MORE
Paris Lit Up organises a monthly meeting where everyone is welcome. On the first Sunday of every month, usually between 3-5.30 pm, we gather to update one another about ongoing activities, the community, and generally to catch up. If you’d like to participate, contact us via social media or info AT parislitup DOT COM.