by Rebecca Otowa
On November 19, 2022, Shizuoka University professor Steve Redford celebrated his retirement with a very ambitious event. He invited two resident-in-Japan writers to join him in an event in which the three talked about their early lives, why they came to Japan, and their experiences of writing in English in Japan. They interspersed these personal tales with readings from their published works. About 50 live participants and 18 Zoom participants enjoyed the event.
Rebecca Otowa, author of essay collection At Home in Japan (2010), children’s book My Awesome Japan Adventure (2013) and short story collection The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper and Other Short Stories (2019), spoke of an early life of reading and writing, moving from the US to Australia at age 12, and coming to Japan (for good) and marrying the scion of an old Japanese farmhouse at age 26. Her writing is mostly about her life in Japan with a side interest in painting and drawing, and has illustrated all her books.
Thersa Matsuura, author of two short story collections, A Robe of Feathers (2009) and The Carp-Faced Boy and Other Tales (2017) and founder of a highly popular podcast, Uncanny Japan, spoke of wanting to have a different lifestyle from that she saw around her in Omaha, Nebraska, and coming to Japan on a Japanese Ministry of Education scholarship and eventually studying at Shizuoka University. Her forte is horror, and she has researched quite a lot into Japanese traditional horror stories.
Steve Redford, author of three novels, Along the Same Street (2013), When a Sissy Climbs a Mountain in May (2019), and Spider Lilies Bleed (2022), worked at Shizuoka University teaching American literature for 25 years. He spoke of wanting to use writing to make sense of his parents’ divorce when he was only 6, and feeling like an outsider among his school friends in Georgia, and eventually coming to Japan as an AET teacher. At first he was in Miyazaki Prefecture, and later took the job at Shizuoka University.
After the talks and readings, all three speakers participated in a Q&A period, there being many good questions from the audience. It emerged that all three of us had given up on Christianity, and sought meaning in other religions, and had been searching for a more meaningful and thought-provoking existence, eventually finding this in Japan. One interesting question from the floor was, did we have any tips on becoming a writer. We interpreted this as, how to begin (and continue) to write. To this we answered, Rewrite a favorite well-known story (Thersa), observe and write about human beings and their relationships (Steve), and use writing prompts and the pressure of deadlines (Rebecca). Steve emphasized that writers weren’t any different from other people.
A very good time was had by all, and we would like to thank particularly Naoe Kukita for her excellent emceeing and interpreting, the Zoom team headed by Zhang Shenkai, and others, especially Mika Suzuki and Tamami Redford.
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Rebecca is the author of three books: At Home in Japan (essays, Tuttle 2010), My Awesome Japan Adventure (children’s book, Tuttle 2013) and The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper (short stories, Tuttle 2019). All are illustrated by the author.
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