“”””””””””””””””””””””” 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. Born Shinto, die Buddhist is the Japanese way. Shinto is this-worldly, concerned with rites of passage and social well-being. Buddhism …Read More
Category: Featured Writers (Page 14 of 26)
Writers in focus
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 in my family tradition (seven generations before mine) of being a Protestant Christian minister, I was a religion major in …Read More
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 Kyoto. At times this was reminiscent of the old Kyoto Connection days, and it was good to see the organiser …Read More
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 Foster Altschul, author of Deus Ex Machina and a former fellow at the Breadloaf and Sewanee Writers conferences. Between them …Read More
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. Her speciality is music therapy, and as well as the guitar she plays harp. ukelele and Native American flute. Her …Read More
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 computer science department at Utrecht University. Four years later, and now “officially smart”, settling down was still the last thing …Read More
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 and then as a young wife and mother) are 1978-1984. I now live in Shiga, the next-door prefecture, so I …Read More
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 and find a cool place to lie if I had any fur I suppose I’d lick it that’s what world …Read More
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 back to 1993, when I had returned to Oxford after a six year spell in Japan and heard of an …Read More
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 of poems without any previous knowledge or expertise. What made you want to publish your own book? In January 2013 …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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