The Japan Writers Conference (JWC) is a free, annual conference open to all. Since 2007, the JWC has attracted English-language writers in a variety of fields for a weekend of sharing ideas and experiences on the art, craft and business of writing.

LEAD ORGANIZER. Kartika is a former climate scientist, who one day arrived at a point that recalled her youth’s passion for writing. She started taking writing more seriously in 2021. Her work has appeared in Grande Dame Literary and White Enso, among others. She has experience coordinating academic events, and since 2023 she has served as co-organizer of JWC. She is pleased to meet all writing enthusiasts, despite their background, in JWC events.

CO-ORGANIZER. John is a poet and writer on music and other topics. A native of Southern California, he has lived in Tokyo since 1993. His work appears internationally and his books include 100 Poets, One Song Each (a translation of The Ogura Hyakunin Isshu of Fujiwara no Teika), Ueno Mornings and Another Wrong Fedora. He has been involved with the JWC since the first conference in 2007, and has served as co-organizer since 2009.

CO-ORGANIZER. Karen is a fiction writer who has lived in Tokyo since 1993. She serves with John Gribble as co-organizer of the Japan Writers Conference and the monthly Tokyo Writers Workshop. Her story “Dot Rat” was included in Best American Mystery Stories 2017. At JWC she has given the presentations “Writing Violence” and “Writing About Sex.”

PUBLICITY COORDINATOR. Tom is a staff writer for The Japan News, he has given four presentations at the JWC over the years: “Interviewing Creative Subjects” in 2010, “Editing for Brevity” in 2014, “Anatomy of a Book Review” in 2018, and “How to Write a Pub Quiz” in 2021. He is also a co-author of “Tokyo Chic” and “The Sushi Lover’s Cookbook.”

WEBMASTER. Jonathan is a UK born web developer and English teacher who has been living in Chiba, Japan for about a decade. Besides updating the JWC website, in his free time he develops apps, reads short fiction and plays tabletop roleplaying games.

WEB DEVELOPER. Patrick is a free-lance science writer and editor, who is currently involved with a project intersecting blog design, data visualization, and kakenhi application. He is the web design specialist at JWC. He was born in Taiwan; grew up in southern France and then in northern Germany; and holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Penn State. He currently lives in Fukushima prefecture and dreams of writing fiction that is worthwhile someday.

JAPANESE-ENGLISH TRANSLATOR. Saki is an undergraduate student at Department of International Education, Tsuru University, Japan. At JWC, she helps translate from English to Japanese.

CO-Organizer. Swastika works as Manager for Fukushima Seaside (https://www.fukushimaseaside.jp), Japan and is simultaneously pursuing her PhD in Linguistics at Tohoku University. She has previously been an Editorial Resident for The Seventh Wave, and has published her poetry in Eunoia Review, Mudroom and Parentheses Journal among others. She has been nominated for Best of Net and Pushcart Prizes, and loves few things as much as she loves chai and Curious George.

2023 JWC HOST. Iain is the author of eight books, including the critically acclaimed “The Only Gaijin in the Village” (Birlinn, 2020), a memoir about his life in rural Japan. His latest book is “The Japan Lights” (Tippermuir, 2023). He teaches Creative Writing and English Literature at Sugiyama Jogakuen University in Nagoya. He is also a freelance editor and journalist, mainly for The Japan Times. He was born and raised in Aberdeen, Scotland and he currently lives in Japan. He studied English at the University of Aberdeen, graduated from the University of Glasgow’s Creative Writing Masters in 2004, and holds a PhD from the University of Sunderland.