Hi! I’m Augustine Blaisdell,
Feminist Author and Philogynist
As the founder of The Writers Retreat in the Côte d’Azur and author of Women À La Mode, I know what it is like to lead my own team, to directly connect with my audience and most importantly to have fun while doing it. I see marketing as community care, a joyous way to connect and share. I am a passionate advocate for my own work as well as my writer friends, both in-person and online. You can expect to work with someone who is professional, creative and committed to the literary community of feminist authors.
As an author mentor …
I have run a successful coaching and consulting business since 2019. From my signature Airbnb experiences of French Feminists on the Beach and Writers of the Côte d’Azur, I have the entrepreneurial spirit necessary to reach my audiences and provide valuable information in an accessible way.
An expert in the marketing and promotion of my own masterclasses and generative workshops, I am highly skilled at bringing people together. With my positive and outgoing attitude, as well as my experience as a major events planner, I excel at creating an environment where writers feel welcomed, respected, admired, and loved.
Originally from Los Angeles, California, I’ve lived in France for the past sixteen years (nine in Paris and seven in the South of France) and am fluent in French. I received my MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University and my BFA in Writing, Literature and Publishing from Emerson College. Essays from my manuscript in progress, The Philogynists have been published by StoryQuarterly, Catapult Story, KGB Bar Literary Magazine, The Intentional Muse and supported by the Bread Loaf Writers Conference where I studied with Camille Dungy, Melissa Febos and Paul Lisicky.
For over sixteen years, I have worked closely with prominent author and French Feminist, Dr. Claudine Monteil, who was recently invited by French President Macron for the official ceremony of the addition of abortion rights to the French constitution. As one of Simone de Beauvoir’s inner circle of young activists, and the youngest signer of the Manifesto of the 343, Dr. Monteil has been fighting for over fifty years for women’s rights both by the publishing of her ten books and her work as a diplomat.
“Blaisdell upends our expectations of the American in Paris narrative, taking the reader on a whirlwind journey through feminist history while sharing moments of vulnerability and personal discovery. ”
Stuck for answers in the States, she embarked on an impulsive journey to France. What she found would redefine femme forever.
New York, 2009. Augustine Blaisdell had big dreams of helping women become more visible. So with her application for a Fulbright Grant rejected and her job ending, the passionate feminist happily answered an ad for an apartment exchange in Paris. Unable to speak the language and hardly knowing what she hoped to discover, she arrived in the City of Lights and began tutelage with a friend of the legendary Simone de Beauvoir.
Introduced to some of France’s leading female thinkers and like-minded ex-pats, Blaisdell discovered herself and seized womanhood along the banks of the Seine. But as she was mapping out what independence truly meant, she was caught off-guard by the rush of a whirlwind Parisian romance…
In this heartfelt account of her fresh start in a city renowned for its powerful female force, Blaisdell relates how her leap of faith brought together multiple passions. And in a compelling work of art that celebrates femininity through the eyes of her enlightening voyage, you’ll be swept away by beautiful, authentic, and emancipating emotions that will touch your soul.
WOMEN À LA MODE is a deeply personal memoir and a fascinating exploration of the feminist zeitgeist. If you like insightful observations, captivating real-life characters, and serious issues sensitively addressed, then you’ll love Augustine Blaisdell’s delightfully provocative narrative.
“The book is hard to put down, and it keeps drawing me back to revisit it. The narrator comes to Paris to explore some of her life’s biggest questions: what does a feminist look like? Is it possible to pursue creative and personal independence and embrace sisterhood and still hold out for a “fairytale” happy ending? Can feminism be beautiful, fashionable, glamorous? ”