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Nicholas Teele interview
Please tell us a little about your upbringing and your relationship with Japan. I was born in Colorado and grew up in a family that loved nature, storytelling, and the fine arts. Between 1948 and…
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Literary festival (Devon, UK)
Ways with Words (at Dartington Hall, Totnes, UK) by John Dougill For the past week I’ve been attending a literary gathering deep in the Devon countryside. Medieval buildings, beautiful grounds, gorgeous countryside and Britain’s finest…
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Introducing Milena Guziak
1) Please tell us something about your background and how you come to be in Japan? I was born in Poland (Kędzierzyn-Koźle) in 1982 and grew up during the harsh reality of political transition, social…
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DIY Publishing (Gupta)
Anuradha Gupta is an Indian living in London who decided to publish her own book. In the following interview she shares with Writers in Kyoto how she went about producing her own personally illustrated collection…
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Writers in Oxford
John Dougill writes… Few WiK members will be aware that in a sense Writers in Oxford is our parent organisation. Not in any formal basis, but simply as a source of inspiration. The links go…
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Goddesses and Ninjas (Kimura)
Goddesses and Ninjas: the mad, dashing world of Shakespeare interview with Marianne Kimura Q. It was a fiercely hot summer in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan. How did you cope? A. I stayed indoors…
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Improv Poesy (Preston Houser)
Written for a Friend Frightened of his Screens by Preston Houser for F.L. on a day like this when it’s too hot to do much more than stare or sleep I follow the cats’ lead…
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Spirited Spirit Guides (E. Taylor)
Edward J. Taylor writes: ‘As John Dougill, the editor of this Writers in Kyoto webpage, has been posting about Korean Shamanism at his blog Green Shinto, I thought that I’d submit a travel piece about…
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My Kyoto Cats (David Duff)
My Kyoto Cats (Davd Duff) Kuma and Kinta were my first Kyoto cats, both blazoned with that distinctive tabby ‘M’ arched above their soft green eyes. Both had the same mother but different fathers so…
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The Seven Forms of Infiltration (Kimura)
Author’s note: I am attempting to write a short novel (entitled The Seven Forms of Infiltration) that takes its inspiration from manga, Japanese comic books; the excerpt below is the first few pages of this…
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Zen poem (Houser)
“Recalling a Light Moment” Amongst zen masters the moon mutant metaphor reflected in water a teaching apart from origin we world-wide witnesses myriad waves possessed of lunar largesse but obviously no moon seen in sea…
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Poems (James Woodham)
red-breasted, wings dull blue picking the way before me bird I cannot name grey clouds, grey water egret spreads grey wings to fly the evening settles calligraphic sky – soft pinks, grey…
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Elemental Japan (Jann Williams)
For the past few years Australian Jann Williams has been a valued supporter of Writers in Kyoto, while researching her magnum opus on the effect on Japan of the elements, whether physical or in the…
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Ryoma! Review (Josh Yates)
Ryoma! The Life of Sakamoto Ryoma: Japanese Swordsman And Visionary By Shiba Ryotaro Translated By Paul McCarthy And Juliet Winters Carpenter. (526 pages) Reviewed by Ian (Josh) Yates For the first time the bestselling historian…
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Song Lyrics (Eric Bray)
Eric Bray Lyrics – Some Blues Some Happies a Bachata Unlike the CD these songs are arranged more or less in chronological order, with “This Day” and “Another Day” coming first, and “Cada Flor” coming…
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Rebecca Otowa Self-Introduction
Rebecca Otowa Self-Introduction for Writers in Kyoto I was born in 1950s America, grew up in 1970s Australia, and came of age in 1980s Japan. My Kyoto years (when I lived there as a student…
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Self-introduction (Iris Reinbacher)
My Journey to Kyoto (by Iris Reinbacher) I left Austria in 2002. I had just finished my masters in mathematics, but wasn’t ready to join the workforce, so I accepted a PhD position in the…
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Yumiko Sato music therapist
Yumiko Sato lunchtime talk on Nov 24, 2018 Born and raised in Japan, educated at university in America, Yumiko has experience of working with dementia patients and the dying in both the US and Japan.…
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Dinner with Vauhini Vara and Andrew Altschul
December 2 at Kushikura near Oike Takakura, eight WiK members had an enjoyable dinner evening with Vauhini Vara, journalist, fiction writer and winner of the O. Henry Prize, together with her husband novelist Andrew…
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Another Plane (Ken Rodgers)
ANOTHER PLANE by Ken Rodgers One day, when he [Chan master Zhaozhao] was about to leave for the Five-Peak Mountain, a monk spoke this verse: What mountain anywhere is not sacred? …
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WiK bonenkai 2018
The WiK bonenkai, held in the cosy surrounds of Philippe’s bar off Kiyamachi, proved a lively and heartwarming evening as bonhomie was interspersed with the showcasing of the remarkable talents of the foreign community in…
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Reggie Pawle introduction
Reggie Pawle writes… I have gone on a meandering path in life from where I grew up, which was in the rural state of Maine in the U.S.A. I was brought up to follow…
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A Kyoto New Year
“”””””””””””””””””””””” A KYOTO NEW YEAR The true soul of Japan is neither Shinto nor Buddhist. It’s Shinto-Buddhist. Until the artificial split of early Meiji times, the country had more than 1000 years of happy syncretism.…
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