One of the senior members of Writers in Kyoto announced last year that they would no longer be buying or reading self-published books on the grounds that the lack of quality control meant that it wasn’t worth the investment in terms of time. There were too many typos, too much self-indulgence, and too much quantity …Read More
Author: John Dougill (Page 37 of 45)
All it took was three days in Kyoto. A short holiday in the city was enough to convince writer Janice Tay to give up a settled life in Singapore and move to the heart of old Japan. A decade later, she is still here. From 2007 to 2013, she contributed a fortnightly column on Japanese …Read More
ISLAND OF SEROW By Amy Chavez Japan is known for its cat islands where the resident strays can outnumber the humans living there. There is also a rabbit island populated by cute cavorting rabbits. I’ve even been to an uninhabited island in the Seto Inland Sea where wild deer and pheasants run amok. But nothing …Read More
David Joiner, whose talk about promoting his first novel was well received last year, has kindly allowed us a sneak look at his current work in progress. This follows his time in Vietnam, since when he has moved to Kanazawa and married. David writes: “Attached is the beginning of an untitled novel set in Kanazawa, …Read More
Here are four poems of Kyoto poetaster and gadfly shakuhachi Master, Preston Louis Houser, selected by a former writer in Kyoto, Fil Lewitt: LAMENT air and earth the academy fire and water the gurus ether and gravity the lessons authentic education for saintly and stupid alike mountain or pretense come off it amounts to …Read More
News of a forthcoming book by WiK member, Allen Weiss, who was recently in Nice at the time of the terrorist atrocity there. Luckily he was nowhere near the events, though he witnessed some of the great commotion going on. Meanwhile, Allen’s latest book is making its way through the final stages of the publishing …Read More
WiK is delighted to announce a breakthrough for one of our members, Marianne Kimura, whose piece from her first novel was featured in the first WiK Anthology. Here she tells how she managed to land her contract, thanks to the Japan Writers Conference. ******************** The Hamlet Paradigm My big news is that my second novel, …Read More
The Writers in Kyoto commemoration of WW1 was timed to coincide with the centenary of the beginning of the Battle of the Somme on July 1, 1916. The event proved hugely entertaining and a worthy way to remember the nightmare undergone 100 years ago. There were recitals, family reminiscences, articles and letters from the …Read More
James Woodham spent his first few years in Japan in a six-mat room in the grounds of a Shinto shrine in Kyoto, studying Japanese and writing poetry while working as little as possible. After a further ten years in the hills to the north, he moved to the wide open spaces of Shiga to bring …Read More
(From Ken Rodgers, KJ Managing Editor) KJ 86, a Work in Progress… Back when Kyoto Journal was a print publication, I used to describe it as the only quarterly that came out three times a year — and in these days of virtually instant digital publishing we still prioritize content over deadlines, and allow time …Read More
Kyoto Writing Competition
WiK Anthologies
The Nature of Kyoto (2023)
Eds. Lisa Twaronite Sone & Robert Weis
Foreword by Pico Iyer
Structures of Kyoto (2021)
Eds: Rebecca Otowa & Karen Lee Tawarayama
Foreword by Judith Clancy
Encounters with Kyoto (2019)
Eds: Jann Williams & Ian Josh Yates
Foreword by Juliet Winters Carpenter
Echoes (2017)
Eds: John Dougill, Amy Chavez, & Mark Richardson
Preface by Alex Kerr
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