2011 Japan Writers Conference presentation summaries and bios
Marc “DJ” Antomattei
“My First Publication: And Yours Too!”
Type of presentation
Short lecture with Q&AA short introduction to my first-ever publication, Miles: The Companion Guide, how the book came to be, obtaining a UPC and ISBN, licensing images and quotes, pros and cons of making a eBook, notes on print-on-demand, cover design and a good designer, and some free ways to market your book using the internet.
My new book Milesis an innovative avant-garde style book made for a niche market of Miles Davis fans and jazz aficionados based on another book, an annotation of sorts and a companion guide. I’m going to give my story in writing the book and a step-by-step of what I did at each stage from its conception to retail, how I obtained a UPC and ISBN, how I licensed the photograph printed on the cover for the cheapest price possible, the licensing of quotes from another already established publication and how much it cost me, how my book ended up going from self printing to eBook to print-on-demand, who to look to get a cover/cover jacket designed, and lastly how I marketed my book online using free to use websites related to the subject matter, social network sites, and YouTube--In other words, what worked for me and what didn’t.Marc Antomattei has been residing in the greater Tokyo area since July 2003 when he first arrived as a serviceman in the US Air Force. Antomattei currently works in the media and arts field as a pro DJ, freelance graphic designer, photographer, and a new creative abstract writer.
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Hugh Ashton"Getting yourself into print - independent publishing for the first-timer"
Type of presentation Lecture with Q&A
The presentation looks at the reasons for following the independent publishing route, and the perils and pitfalls, as well as the joys, of doing it yourself. Ebook publishing is covered, together with traditional "sliced dead tree" publishing.
Starting from "why publish independently?", the presentation examines the traditional publishing market and contrasts it with independent publishing and vanity publishing. Topics such as interior book-block design, cover design, and pre-press are covered, as well as the art of preparing a manuscript to be used as the contents of a book. Once the book has been produced, it must be marketed. This is often a harder task than actually writing the book, and Hugh is happy to share whatever tips on the subject he has picked up along the way. Ebooks finally seem poised as real competition to paper, but they demand a different approach, which will be discussed. Questions and problems related to independent publishing are welcome.
Hugh Ashton came to Japan in 1988 as a technical writer. He has always written fiction, but found it hard to publish his first published novel commercially. He published Beneath Gray Skies independently and followed up with At the Sharpe End, which reached #4 in the Thriller category on Amazon Japan.
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Winifred Bird and Jane SingerTitle: Pitch Slam!
Type of Presentation: Short presentation followed by craft workshop.
Handouts will be provided.
A query is a lot like a blind date. Make a good first impression, and you’re on your way to a productive relationship with the magazine or newspaper of your dreams. But get that first paragraph or two wrong, and no matter how brilliant your idea, it could face a long and lonely future stuck in your home office.
In this workshop we’ll discuss query-writing basics as well as give tips for making your pitch irresistible. If you plan to attend this workshop, please come prepared to present, in no more than 1 minute, an idea for a story you’re hoping to send out in the near future, along with the type of publication you plan to submit it to. To begin, the presenters will give brief talks about the basics of pitching, then answer questions. The second half of the session will be the “Pitch Slam.” Participants will give 30-second to 1-minute verbal pitches with just the kernel of their story ideas and get feedback. There will also be a handout packet with more pitching tips and sample queries for participants to look at on their own.
Winifred Bird is a full-time freelance journalist living in Nagano, Japan. She writes about science and nature, with occasional forays into architecture, agriculture, and education, for publications including The Japan Times, Christian Science Monitor, Science, Dwell, Mother Earth News, Kyoto Journal and Yale Environment 360. She is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and recently received a media fellowship in environmental law from Vermont Law School. She estimates that at least half her queries disappear into the black hole known as the editor’s inbox, never to be seen again.
American Jane Singer has been a writer and editor at several domestic commercial magazines and newspapers during her 27 years’ residence in Japan. Today she is a regular contributor to the Japan Times and serves as editor of an academic journal, Sansai: An Environmental Journal for the Global Community. She is also associate professor at the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, where her research interests include migration and displacement and education for sustainable development. She led a session on An Editor’s Perspective on Commercial Media Writing in Japan at the Japan Writers Conference in 2009.
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Juliet Winters Carpenter“Saka no ue no kumo--Team Translating redux”
Type of presentation short lecture with Q&A
Two years ago I gave a short presentation about the translation of Shiba Ryotaro's eight-volume masterwork, Saka no ue no kumo (Clouds above the Hills), which describes the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. This will be a follow-up, tracing how the still-ongoing translation has progressed.
Two years ago, we were just starting out on the ambitious task of translating Shiba Ryotaro's Saka no ue no kumo, with its multitude of problems. "We" is a team of translators, checkers, and editors. Since then my share of the translation has increased from three volumes to four. I will discuss how the team has worked together to produce a readable, exciting, clear translation, what I have learned, and why I agreed to take on an extra volume. The project is nearing its close, and now seems a good time to take a fresh look at what we have done, and how and why.
Juliet Winters Carpenter is a Midwesterner. After beginning her study of Japanese at age sixteen, she went to the University of Michigan (1965-69) and studied under Edward Seidensticker, Robert Brower, and William F. Sibley. Since 1979 she has translated over fifty works in various genres. Her latest is Unlocking Tannisho: Shinran's Words on the Pure Land Path (Ichimannendo, 2011).
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Gregory J. Dunne"The Vocation of Poetry: Conversations with Cid Corman"
Type of Presentation: Short Lecture with Q/A
This presentation discusses the challenging ideas of poetic vocation as espoused by the late expatriate American poet Cid Corman who long resided in Kyoto. What lessons can expatriate writers of poetry learned from his ideas and ideals?
When Cid Corman passed away in Kyoto in 2004 at the age of 79, he had lived quietly in Japan for over forty years. During that time he produced an enormous amount of poetry and translated poetry and prose from many different languages and time periods. He also managed to continue to publish the seminal American literary magazine he founded in Boston in 1954, Origin. Although living in Japan, Corman remained a “Yankee poet,” as Hayden Carruth remarked, finding evidence for this in Corman’s independent attitude, his sense of self-reliance, and near Puritanical devotion to the task of poetry. Over a fifteen-year period, I had the chance to regularly speak with Cid about poetry and the vocation of poetry. This talk distills much of the substance of those conversations concerning vocation and question to what degree Corman’s views remain relevant in an age in which Facebook, self-promotion, and careerism are becoming more and more associated with the life of the poet.
Gregory Dunne is the author of two books of poetry Home Test (Adastra Press, 2009) and Fistful of Lotus (2000). His nonfiction book on the poet Cid Corman is due out with Ekstasis Press in 2011. His poetry, essays, interviews, and translations have appeared in magazines in both the United States and Japan, including The American Poetry Review, Poetry East, Manoa, Prairie Schooner, Third Coast, Another Chicago Magazine, Kyoto Journal, Mainichi Shinbun, Sakura, and Willow Springs. His poetry and prose have both been anthologized in Poetry East’s 20th anniversary retrospective editions: The Last Believer in Words and Who Are The Rich And Where Do They Live, respectively. He holds a B.S. in Biology from the University of Idaho, a B.A. in English from the University of Washington, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing – Poetry from Eastern Washington University. In addition to his own creative work, he pursues scholarly work on the American expatriate poet, translator, and editor Cid Corman, who lived in Japan for more than 40 years.~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gregory J. Dunne“From Doubt to Poetry: Writing Out of Wilderness”
Type of Presentation: Short Lecture with Q/A
How can aspiring writers of poetry begin to write a poem? This talk discussing the liberating poetic theories of William Stafford as they relate to process, a process that begins in doubt – wilderness – and moves into poetry.
John Keats coined the phrase “Negative Capability” in a letter to his brother in 1817 when he spoke of a particular “quality” that went into forming a “Man of Achievement” in literature. He went on to define this quality in terms of being something akin to a state of mind where a man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason – .” Generally, the term has been understood to refer to a capability utilized by the poet in the early stages of composition. The late contemporary American poet William Stafford’s poetics draw upon Keats’ theory and extends the theory to the entire writing process. This talk will examine Stafford’s liberating theory of poetic process and how it can be fruitfully applied in practice by anyone aspiring to write poetry.
Gregory Dunne is the author of two books of poetry Home Test (Adastra Press, 2009) and Fistful of Lotus (2000). His nonfiction book on the poet Cid Corman is due out with Ekstasis Press in 2011. His poetry, essays, interviews, and translations have appeared in magazines in both the United States and Japan, including The American Poetry Review, Poetry East, Manoa, Prairie Schooner, Third Coast, Another Chicago Magazine, Kyoto Journal, Mainichi Shinbun, Sakura, and Willow Springs. His poetry and prose have both been anthologized in Poetry East’s 20th anniversary retrospective editions: The Last Believer in Words and Who Are The Rich And Where Do They Live, respectively. He holds a B.S. in Biology from the University of Idaho, a B.A. in English from the University of Washington, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing – Poetry from Eastern Washington University. In addition to his own creative work, he pursues scholarly work on the American expatriate poet, translator, and editor, Cid Corman, who lived in Japan for more than 40 years.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kazuko Enda and Deborah Iwabuchi“Writing for the Japanese market: developing a book and then keeping it afloat as publisher folds and country enters state of disaster”
Type of presentation: Short lecture in English with Q&A.
After writing two successful books for the Japanese market on English learning, we were going for another when the publisher folded and the country was devastated by an earthquake days before the publication date. How were we to keep the book afloat?
Perfect plans for our best and most imaginative effort yet were destroyed when, days prior to publication date, our publisher was dissolved by its parent company and the country entered a state of disaster following the Tohoku Earthquake. We will briefly discuss how we developed our book and how geeky technical writer types readjust their comfort zones to promote their work: taking on Amazon, preying on bookstores, searching for promoters, starting a blog (in the midst of rolling black-outs) and dealing with editors about to lose their jobs. We expect this to interest people rooted in Japan, dealing mainly with Japanese publishers and editors—how to present and develop book ideas, and maintain equilibrium when unforeseen circumstances come into play.
Deborah Iwabuchi is a long-time Japan resident and translator.of numerous Japanese authors, including Miyuki Miyabe, Jun’ichi Watanabe, Nobuko Takagi and others. Minamimuki Translations, Ltd. http://minamimuki.com
Kazuko Enda is one of Japan’s top English experts and technical translators, an in-demand speaker and author of the best selling Google????????:????????????????, published by Kodansha International (Dec. 2009).~~~~~~~~~~~~
David Gilbey“‘Reeling and Writhing 2’: A Poetry Editing Workshop – preparing for publication.”
Type of presentation: A ‘closed’ workshop, requiring participants to submit (drafts of) poems before the conference as well as be involved in the discussion of work submitted by others.
PLEASE NOTE: To take part in this workshop, you must contact the presenter in advance at
dgilbey@csu.edu.au
The workshop is based on the familiar and successful structure and strategy as offered by John Gribble at the 2008 JWC and my own last year. It will involve my sending out a ‘brief’ to intending participants requiring submission of drafts of poems, then, before the actual workshop, reading and making comments on each of the participants’ poems and finally, participating in the workshop discussion itself at the conference.
This workshop allows writers to work on a poem or two in readiness for publication, recognising that conference delegates are themselves writers, teachers and editors and that there are both personal and professional benefits from a closely-focussed discussion of emerging texts. So the purpose of this workshop is to give a small group of poets the opportunity to meet, read and discuss in depth a sample of each others’ work. The workshop will be open to a limited number of participants but writers of varying degrees of experience will be welcome. The session will be closed and of two hours duration. There will be two parts to the workshop: preparation and participation. Preparation also has two parts, submitting and close reading – those who sign up for the session will be contacted before the conference. To take part, contact dgilbey@csu.edu.au
David Gilbey is Adjunct Senior Lecturer in English (eg. Australian, Children's) and Creative Writing at Charles Sturt University and the founding President of Wagga Wagga Writers Writers, as well as a poet. His first full collection of poems, Death and the Motorway was published in 2008 after having travelled to US, UK, France, Japan and China on Study Leave in 2006. He has taught English at Miyagi Gakuin Women's University in Sendai, Japan 1996,
2000 and 2007.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Claire Dawn-Marie Gittens“Into the Melting Pot- Multicultural YA Fiction”
Type of Presentation: Interactive lecture
This presentation will consider the role of multiculturalism in today’s YA publishing, what multiculturalism is in a literary sense, and give pointers on things to consider when writing.
There is a demand for multicultural offerings in the YA publishing world. First the attendees will brainstorm on the definition of multiculturalism and then I will present my definition. I will then consider the differences and similarities between the setting/character and the target audience. Along with the attendees, I will consider multicultural issues as they pertain to the Young Adult audience. We will also look at ways to illustrate the multicultural world including food, religion, social norms and physical issues.
We will then consider some points of caution. First we will take stereotypes into consideration. Which stereotypes are mostly true? How can we use stereotypes? Which ones should we avoid? Next we will examine ways to avoid over-explaining. Finally, we will consider the dangers of relying on the uniqueness of the character/setting, rather than on the strength of the work.
Claire Dawn-Marie Gittens is a 29 year old Barbadian living in Iwate. Her work can be found in the WRITE FOR TOHOKU ebook, the CLAIR FORUM journal and the JET JOURNAL. Her current YA manuscript stars a girl who gets caught with a boy in her parent’s bed. (http://aclairedawn.blogspot.com)
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Claire Dawn-Marie Gittens“Brick by Brick: How to build a blog”
Type of Presentation: Short lecture w/ Q &A
This presentation will consider the role of blogs in today’s publishing world. It will also explain how to get started and how to make your mark in the blogging world.
Increasingly often, literary agents recommend that writers have a presence in the online world. This workshop will seek to introduce blogging to those unfamiliar with it, and examine ways in which current bloggers can expand their followership and give their readers more.First I will consider the benefits of blogging. Then I will go through how to start up a blog, including how to choose a platform, the importance of the choice of url, and choosing your stand- your unique point of view.
Finally we will look at how to connect with readers and different types of content you can post on your blog.
Claire Dawn-Marie Gittens is a 29 year old Barbadian living in Iwate. Her work can be found in the WRITE FOR TOHOKU ebook, the CLAIR FORUM journal and the JET JOURNAL. Her current YA manuscript stars a girl who gets caught with a boy in her parent’s bed. (http://aclairedawn.blogspot.com)
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Jessica Goodfellow“Embracing Erasing: Erasure as Poetry for Everyone”
Type of Presentation: Short discussion about craft with workshop
We will learn about erasure as a poetic form by defining erasure, looking at examples, examining various techniques, and reviewing a brief history of the form. Participants will then try their own hand at erasure using source texts prepared by the presenter. Online resources for erasure will also be given.
Quintillian said, "Erasure is as important as writing." In the recently popularized poetic form of erasure, this is certainly true. Erasure begins with a pre-existing text and sculpts poetry out of it by erasing or blacking out unwanted words much in the way that a sculptor makes his finished piece by removing excess rock or marble. Erasure, a cross between poetry and collage, has a long history but is enjoy increasing popularity today, perhaps due to its accessibility. People inexperienced in writing poetry as well as seasoned poets (we will name a few) are enjoying success with erasure. Come and learn about this form and its history, investigate which materials are suitable for original texts, discover some useful techniques, and discuss the legal implications of using another writer’s work as your beginning point. Finally, try your own hand at erasure. You could even take home a finished original erasure poem.
Jessica Goodfellow’s books are The Insomniac’s Weather Report (three candles press) and A Pilgrim’s Guide to Chaos in the Heartland (Concrete Wolf chapbook). Recipient of the Chad Walsh Poetry Prize (Beloit Poetry Journal), her work has appeared in Best New Poets 2006, Verse Daily, The Writer’s Almanac and other places.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alice Gordenker“How The Heck Do You Write About Japan?”
Type of presentation: Short lecture with lively Power Point slides, followed by Q&A.
A session focused on journalistic writing about Japan geared for both beginning and seasoned writers. It addresses challenges including getting interviews, translating quotes and writing for audiences with widely differing levels of experience with Japan. This talk is an update of a presentation I made to SWET in Tokyo in 2010.
Writing about Japan raises real challenges. How do you present what’s different without exoticising? How much should you explain? Can you translate quotes accurately, retaining the original tone, while keeping your article readable? How much Japanese can you use? And is it possible to convey your sense of wonder without making a total fool of yourself? Journalist Alice Gordenker will address these and other issues while providing practical suggestions and a behind-the-scenes account of how she crafts her popular “So, What the Heck Is That?” column for the Japan Times. In this monthly column, now in its sixth year, Gordenker has achieved a balance of humor and respect in meticulously researched yet decidedly off-beat reports on everything from traditional culture to industrial safety.
Alice Gordenker is an American journalist who has lived and worked in Tokyo for more than a dozen years. For most of that time, she has been a regular columnist for The Japan Times. She also works at NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster, where she writes scripts for programs about Japan.~~~~~~~~~~~~
David Gregory
“Send it to TNB! Writing for Tokyo Notice Board”
Presentation type: Short lecture with Q & A
You have a Japan story; TNB wants it! Tokyo Notice Board magazine offers a relatively easy way to publish short writing about your Japan experiences and observations. We will discuss taking advantage of this opportunity, and hope you will leave inspired to try (because they need better stuff, like yours).
Free weekly magazine Tokyo Notice Board (TNB) offers a convenient way to get your short Japan “slice-of-life” experiences and observations, in prose or poetry, into print, in Japan. TNB has published more than 20 of my pieces since 2003. But I get frustrated sometimes trying to read what TNB often presents for lack of higher quality submissions. They need work from people like you, the people who attend the JWC. With TNB’s endorsement, I want to encourage you to send TNB your work. To help get you started, I will discuss:
· What is TNB?
· What does TNB want?
· What are my experiences with TNB?
· What can you do for TNB, and how?
· What can TNB do for you?
Writers without much public exposure will benefit the most from this presentation. I hope attendees will leave with minds already crafting ideas to take advantage of the unique publishing opportunity TNB offers.David Gregory is from Chicago, IL and has been in Japan since 1990. He is an engineer and businessman who operates an industrial products importing business. He enjoys doing sports, painting, and writing. His published works include short pieces published in Tokyo Notice Board magazine, broadcasts on NHK Radio Japan, and research published by Decision Sciences Institute.
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John Gribble
“Writing Away From the Self, or ‘Every Poet’s Middle Name is Mimi’”
Is “Mimi” the best subject for a poem or even the proper focus of a memoir? What makes the personal or autobiographical interesting or significant to the reader?
When American poet Howard Nemerov came up with that witticism in 1970, he was not just commenting on the poetry coming into fashion at the time. The personal lyric has been a major aspect of poetry from at least the time of the Romantics. And if anything, it is even more the dominant mode of poetry and other writing today. The First Person Singular and the focus on the self dominate not only poetry, but fiction, non-fiction (note the Memoir Boom) and even intrude into journalism. Is this a good thing? Or maybe a more useful question would be, is this too much of a good thing?
Using ideas from poet Michael Ryan’s collection of essays A Difficult Grace, this session will briefly examine two poems and two short memoir passages examining various “Mimis”. A discussion, perhaps aided with some seed questions, will follow.
John Gribble is a native Southern Californian, a Tokyo resident since 1993, and one of the organizers of the Japan Writers Conference. His poems have appeared in many publications in the US, UK, Australia, and Japan. The collection Another Wrong Fedora was published by Printed Matter Press. His website: http://johngribble.com/
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Thomas Hardy“Writing Identities: identity-related issues in the writing of textbooks”
Type of Presentation:Short lecture with Q&A
When writing about characters, writers may need to consider the vexed matter of characters’ identities and their impact on readers. Thispresentation examines aspects of identity that might arise. It thenexplores one textbook writing team's responses to these matters and closes with possible lessons for writers in similar situations.
When writing about characters, writers may need to consider the vexed matter of the characters’ identities and their impact on readers and, possibly, sales. This presentation first looks at what happened when this occurred in the writing of an English textbook series for Japanese junior high school students: the aspects and issues of identity that arose concerning character’s sociological features (sex, nationality, native language, etc.), and their personalities. It then
explores the ways one team of writers addressed these matters through a close examination of specific cases and the writers’ responses, both pedagogical and practical. For instance, it examines the negotiations and compromises made when writers dealt with the linked identities of place and language. It closes with the possible impact of these decisions on the success of the series and lessons for writers who might find themselves in similar situations.Thomas Hardy teaches at Keio University. He has lived and worked in Japan for going on 30 years. His primary interests are in textbook publishing (including the series New Crown and Exceed), teaching, and getting the lived reality of these experiences across to students and
peers.~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Todd Jay Leonard
“The 'Ins and Outs' of Writing and Publishing English Language Textbooks: Some Helpful Hints for Breaking into the ESL/EFL Publishing Field in Japan”
Short lecture with Q & A
This presentation will offer helpful hints on how to best go about getting an idea for an ESL/EFL book written, pitched, and published in Japan. An outline of the current publishing market in Japan, as well as reviewing the various points of views within the publishing industry, will be covered. The presenter, Todd Jay Leonard, has published extensively within the ESL/EFL market in Japan and will offer his experience to budding authors who wish to pursue projects geared to Japan's domestic market.
The idea of publishing a textbook for classroom use can be a daunting task to some people...but it doesn't have to be. This presentation will take the mystery out of the process by offering helpful hints on how to get that proverbial "foot in the door". What are publishers looking for in the current market? What appeals to editors who ultimately decide which titles go to production and which ones do not? What are the salespeople on the front lines hearing from their market base? What must an author do in order to get his/her book published?
This presentation focuses on these very questions, offering inside insights from all the various points of view that must be considered when writing a proposal to publish a textbook--the publisher, the editor, the salesperson, and the author. Professor Leonard explains the realities within the publishing industry and addresses some common myths associated with EFL publishing.
Todd Jay Leonard has been actively involved in book publishing for twenty years. He has published books with a number of different Japanese publishing companies and this experience has given him a unique perspective in offering advice to potential authors on what the market is looking for currently and what the publishing industry is searching for in new titles.
He lives, writes, and teaches on the southern island of Kyushu, where he is a university professor at Fukuoka University of Education. He has published extensively in academic journals, magazines and newspapers on cross-cultural, historical, and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) themes. He is the author of 20 books.~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elaine Lies
“Been There, Done That – Writers on Writing”Short lecture with Q&A
I interview several published writers a week for my job. They talk about craft, about writing decisions, and advice for aspiring writers. I’d like to share this with other writers.
Where did Madison Smartt Bell get the idea for his latest book? What does Ryu Murakami say about writer’s block? When asked for advice for aspiring writers, which author said, “Bum on the chair?”As part of my current job, I’m interviewing published writers, usually one or two a week, for a weekly column of author Q&A interview stories. I’ve heard a lot about craft, about what works, about why people made the choices they did for their books. I’ve heard a lot of what it takes to make it. I’ve talked to people across genres – YA, memoir, romance, thriller, literary – famous and debut, I’ve talked to them all. It’s a crash course in a lot of different thinking and a lot of different writing, and I’d like to offer this to other writers.
Elain Lies is currently Lifestyle/Entertainment Editor for Asia at Thomson Reuters, where a big part of her work is supervising the weekly “Book Talk” author Q&A series. Her Reuters features have been carried on the New York Times website, among others. Her fiction has appeared in Wingspan, the ANA inflight magazine.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Li Jiang (aka Chu-Ching Chen, Marie Orise)
“‘A noir, E blanc’: How Synaesthesia can Work for You as a Writer”
Type of presentation: Craft workshop
This workshop will explore how our senses correspond to each other, and how we writers can borrow from other art genres, such as fine art, music, or dance, to enrich our writing.
Two widely known French poems touch on synaesthesia: in ‘Voyelles’, Arthur Rimbaud assigns a colour to each of the five vowels, and in ‘Correspondances’, Charles Baudelaire illustrates how ‘Perfumes, sounds, and colours answer to each other’. Synaesthesia is an attribute most people possess. In this workshop, I will first briefly explain how I have experimented with ‘translating between art genres’ as a form of creativity exercise, and then provide examples of fine art, music, and dance from which participants will be asked to develop characters and/or story ideas. This session will be interactive. Bring your pen and notebook and write away.
Li Jiang, PhD, was trained in English literature at Tokyo University and Nottingham University. She is an associate professor at Meiji University. Her publications include a short story in a Puffin anthology (*Skin Deep*, 2004) and a travel piece in Japanese which won third prize of the 12th Izu Literary Award (2009).~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dawn Jin Sook Lucovich“Innovative Interviews: How One Publication Engages Subjects, Audiences, and Creative Selves”
Type of presentation: Short Lecture and Workshop
This session will suggest and examine how interviews can collaborate with the medium and with interviewees to craft more innovative, engaging pieces. Participants will brainstorm, workshop, and present their ideas and new potential interview concepts, formats, tips and tricks. Finally, the reamining time will be used for Q & A and networking.
Question: Are interviews simply "question, answer, question, answer" pieces?
Answer: Interviews can be many things: conversations, inquiries, monologues, diatribes, collages, montages, essays, and much, much more.
10. Magazine, a print + online journal in Tokyo hopes to enliven, expand, and re-envision the typical Q&A format. Since its beginnings in a 30th floor apartment in October 2009, this magazine has sought to engage with its interviewees, readers, and with the genre itself by utilizing more innovative interview techniques, concepts, and formats. More consciousness-raising and and discussion is needed about the flexibility of the interview genre and its potential multiplicity of identity, as well as how those things might apply to more traditional interviews and contexts.Dawn Jin Lucovich (B.A. Rhetoric/Creative Writing, M.A. Education/TESOL) currently teaches writing in Tokyo. She is a tutor at Teachers College Columbia University's Writing Center, as well as Creative Director & Editor and Co-Founder of 10. Magazine (www.10tenmag.com): a bilingual, interview-format magazine + website that showcases and connects people and their passions through words, art, and events.
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Rebecca Otowa“Why Can't I Write? Examining the Phenomenon of Writer's Block”
Type of presentation: short talk with audience participation
Writer's block is a term often used semi-humorously, but it is a very real and agonizing derailment of the delicate relationship of author to page. Possible causes are examined, as well as strategies for unblocking. Participants are encouraged to give brief accounts of their own experiences and strategies.Topics will include:
Definition of writer's block and references in literature
My personal struggle with writer's block over a 6-month period (Oct. 2010 - March 2011)
Causes, including ongoing causes: Self-sabotage and self-hatred -- the vicious circle
Expectations -- of self and other
Getting stuck on the product -- First Book Syndrome
Too much to write / Too little to write
Fear of uncovering / revealing the innermost self
Strategies for unblocking: First word -- Grabbing the multicolored ribbon
Returning to the spirit of play
The importance of handwriting
The discipline question
Participants will share their experiences and personal strategies as time permits
Rebecca Otowa was born in 1955 in Calilfornia, USA, educated in Australia. (BA (Hons.) in Japanese from University of Queensland and came to Japan in 1978. She earned an MA inBuddhist Studies from Otani University.Married to the scion of 350-year-old house and family, she has been living in rural Shiga 25 years. At Home in Japan (Tuttle, 2010) is a colleciton of essays about her experiences.
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Paul Rossiter“Performances”
Type of Presentation: Poetry reading with Q&A
A poetry reading on the theme of performance; the poems will be equally concerned with dance, theatrical and musical performances, and with the kind of unconscious performances that we witness every day. There will be time for questions, answers and discussion at the end.
This reading will be concerned with performances, but the poems will depict not only artistic performance—dance, theatre and music, or even the imaginative performance that visual art can elicit from a viewer—but also the performances of unknown others that we witness every day. People often perform their selves—sometimes brilliantly, sometimes eccentrically, sometimes heart-breakingly—in social and public spaces without anyone, including themselves, noticing that they’re doing it; it’s only when the actions are framed in a viewfinder or in attentive, focused language that the nature, or even the fact, of the performance becomes clear. The poems themselves attempt to “perform” their meaning, not in the sense that they are examples of “performance poetry”, but in the sense that their language aims to enact and embody the things that they observe and what they say.Paul Rossiter teaches at the University of Tokyo, Komaba. He has published three books of poems: In Daylight (Printed Matter 1995), Monumenta Nipponica (Saru 1995), and The Painting Stick (Pine Wave 2005).
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Alex Shishin“Publishing Fiction, Essays and Creative Nonfiction in English in and outside Japan: An Unconventional Guide”
Type of Presentation: Lecture followed by discussion.
The presenter will share his experiences in publishingessays, fiction and creative nonfiction in print and in online journals and books and offer advise. Importantly, the presentation will deal with the impact of the Internet on writers, particularly in relation to self-publishing. Extended discussion will follow the lecture.
How do you as an English language writer in Japan startpublishing essays, fiction and creative nonfiction either here or abroad? What rewards come from publishing? What impact has the Internet had on writers, and especially writers of fiction and creative nonfiction (memoirs, travel, etc.)? What unique advantages and problems does the expatriate writer have? Using his experience as a writer living in Japan since 1980, the presenter, who has published extensively in and outside this country, will address these and other pertinent issues. He will touch on back doors and wormholes to publication, the direct and indirect benefits of publication, and how the Internet has especially affected the writer in English in Japan. Also discussed will the practical aspects of self-publishing books either using print-on-demand (POD) sources or as ebooks. The lecture portion of this presentation will account for roughly half the time allotted. Discussion will follow.
Alex Shishin, a Kansai professor, has authored six books. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in and outside Japan and on the Internet. His later anthologized “Mr. Eggplant Goes Home” received an “Honorable Mention” from the O. Henry Awards. He received a Million WritersAward for outstanding Internet short fiction.
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Ann Tashi Slater“Setting Your Story in a Foreign Country (and a Few Thoughts on Getting It Published)”
Type of Presentation: Reading/Lecture with Q&A
I’ll begin with a short reading, followed by a discussion of common problems and challenges that arise when writing fiction set in a foreign country. Topics include doing research, choosing details that make your setting come alive, and crafting convincing dialogue. How much research is too little/too much/enough? When you’re ready to begin writing, how do you use your research to create a compelling and believable setting? How do you write convincing dialogue for characters who are non-native English speakers? Finally, I’ll share some thoughts on sending out your work, dealing with rejection, and getting an agent. Resources will be provided, and there will be time at the end for Q&A.
Ann Tashi Slater is an Associate Professor of American Literature at Japan Women’s University. She earned her BA in Comparative Literature at Princeton and her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Michigan. Her stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Shenandoah, Gulf Coast, Painted Bride Quarterly, and Yomimono, as well as in American Dragons (HarperCollins). Her translation of a novella by Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas was published in Old Rosa: A Novel in Two Stories (Grove). She recently completed a novel set in Darjeeling and is working on a travel memoir.~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michael Stetson“The Silent Dance —Between Words & Images”
Presentation Type: short lecture with Q&A
The presentation will explore and discuss the symbiotic aspects of words and images as they interact to create a coherency that exceeds the sum of their parts. It will demonstrate how the narrative for each medium can exist independently, yet when conjoined, form a para-narrative that extends context and meaning.
Although the digital revolution has begun, it is still in its infancy with regard to how it is used for presenting documentary (still) photography and journalistic narratives. Writers and photographers share their work on the Internet, in digital formats, but they continue to show these narratives in traditional linear contexts. However, the “world-wide-web” and the hyper-technology that accompanies it, promise much more. Their world-view is non-linear and enables presentations that can link to a myriad of contexts, following paths that are not necessarily chronological, but rather cyclical, and controlled by the audience.
The presentation will begin with a brief examination of the traditional uses of each narrative, then introduce methods of using written narratives with image narratives to establish contexts that more comprehensively describe or re-create experience. Writers who participate will learn multiple approaches for combining the two narratives, creating synergies between them that extend context and meaning, and develop dynamic dialogues that supersede the traditional, synchronic presentation.
Michael Stetson's experience as a teacher and photographer has taken him to Asia, the Middle East and Greece. Presently, he is working for Miyazaki International College in Miyazaki, Japan and conducting research on the Silk Roads. Since 1997, he has lived and traveled extensively throughout Asia, documenting some of the last remaining evidence of unadulterated cultural and ethnic diversity.~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vikas Swarup“A Reading with Vikas Swarup, with Q & A”
Diplomat-Novelist Vikas Swarup was born in Allahabad (India) in a family of lawyers.He penned his first novel, Q&A, in two months, when he was posted in London. Published in 2005 by Doubleday/Random House (UK & Commonwealth), Harper Collins (Canada) and Scribner (US), it has been published in 42 languages. The film version, Slumdog Millioniare, won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
His second novel, Six Suspects, was released in the UK & Commonwealth by Transworld in August 2008. Published by Harper Collins in Canada and St Martin’s Press in the US, Radio 4 commissioned a radio play based on the novel. It has been optioned for a film by the BBC and Starfield productions.
Vikas contributed a short story titled ‘A Great Event’ to ‘The Children’s Hours: Stories of Childhood’, a bold and moving anthology of stories about childhood to support Save the Children and raise awareness for its fight to end violence against children.
He has written for TIME, The Guardian, The Telegraph (UK), The Financial Times (UK), British Airway’s in-flight magazine HighLife, DNA (India), Outlook (India) and Liberation (France).He is one of the three judges for the Man Asian Literary prize 2011.
Since August 2009, he is the Consul General of India in Osaka-Kobe, Japan.
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Dale Thomas“Developing Plausible Aliens for Speculative Fiction”
Type of Presentation: Short lecture with Q&A
In order to develop plausible aliens in science fiction, a solid understanding of evolution and related concepts is needed. In addition, by using the same methods we can make credible guesses about the nature of their cultures and technologies to build rich, sprawling worlds for readers to get lost in.
Speculative fiction is replete with creatures from other planets or other dimensions. However, most myths, fairy-tales, movies, TV shows and books suggest that if we ever do meet otherworldly creatures, they will look like human/animal hybrids or people with pointy ears and lumpy foreheads, communication with them will be relatively painless, and that we may even be able to interbreed with them.
In order to develop plausible aliens, a writer must move away from these fallacious beliefs. To do this, a basic understanding of evolution is needed. After that a passing knowledge of other biological concepts is useful, such as convergent evolution, symbiosis, parasitism, sexual dimorphism, sexual selection, symmetry, scaling, morphogenesis, life-cycles, and so on.
We may only have one example of a planet with life to draw upon, but using scientific knowledge, we can at least make credible guesses as to what might actually be out there.Dale Thomas is a freelance programmer who, in addition to writing non-fiction, he has a love of science fiction and horror. As “Alex Sivier”he publishes short stories which explore human interactions with strange alien creatures. He currently lives in Kyoto with his wife, two children and their crazy dog Scylla.
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Charles WhippleWriting About Guns. From Experience
Getting the details right in a piece of writing is essential. Wrong information will turn the knowledgeable reader off in an instant. This is especially true in genre fiction. Here’s a chance to gain some expertise, to have an experience and write about it.
Tom Wolfe contends there are four devices a writer can use to give realistic writing immediacy and power.
1. Scene by scene construction.
2. Record the dialog in full.
3. Write from a third person point of view.
4. Record the symbolic details of people's status life.Wolfe writes, “The fourth device has always been the least understood. This is the recording of everyday gestures, habits, manners, customs, style of furniture, clothing decoration, styles of traveling, eating, keeping house, modes of behaving toward children, servants, superiors, inferiors, peers, plus the various looks, glances, poses, styles of walking and other symbolic details that might exist within a scene.”
In this session participants will have the opportunity to learn about and write about those most symbolic, iconic details of the American West, handguns and rifles. Using non-firing replicas from the collection of noted arms expert and author “Duke” Minamoto Tsuneyoshi Tomotomi , novelist Charles T. Whipple will first talk briefly about the weapons, then lead the group in a writing exercise after the participants have chosen their weapons.
Charles T. Whipple, an international prize-winning author, uses the pen name of Chuck Tyrell for his Western novels. Whipple was born and reared in Arizona’s White Mountain country only 19 miles from Fort Apache. Raised on a ranch, Whipple brings his own experience into play when writing about the hardy people of 19th Century Arizona. Although he currently lives in Japan, Whipple maintains close ties with the West through family, relatives, former schoolmates, and readers of his western fiction. Whipple belongs to Western Fictioneers, Western Writers of America, Arizona Authors Association, American Society of Journalists and Authors, and Tauranga Writers Inc. He also supports and belongs to a group of Western aficionados in Japan called Western Union.