| ROOM 416 Poetry | ROOM 417 Fiction, Nonfiction & Film | ROOM 418 Publishing, Marketing, Career & Writing Techniques (all genres) |
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| 08:30–09:30 | Christopher Simons Lyric to Song, Song to Lyrics (Craft Workshop) Keywords: lyric poetry, poetic form, songwriting | John Rucynski The 4 C’s of Getting EFL Textbooks Published (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: EFL textbooks, textbook writing and publishing, cultural familiarity |
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| 09:30–10:30 | Philip Rowland Creating Publishable Short-form Poetry (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: short-form poetry, English-language haiku, innovation | John Spiri Regular Writing for Writing Development (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: nonfiction, journaling, freewriting | Patrick Murphrey Pleasure Combined with Publishing: How I Became a Travel Writer and Ideas that Apply to All Publishing (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: marketing, travel writing, articles |
| 10:30–11:30 | Paul Rossiter, Masaya Saito, & Eric Selland This Year at Isobar (Reading with Q&A) Keywords: poetry, haiku, translation, visual poetry | Lowell Sheppard Writing a Companion Book for a TV Series: What I have learned (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: nonfiction, first draft, TV series, tips | Julia Kimura Scrivener for Luddites: Let’s publish and flourish! (Craft Workshop) Keywords: productivity, publishing, Scrivener, career |
| 11:30–13:00 | Lunch Break | Lunch Break | Lunch Break |
| 13:00–14:00 | Yoko Danno, Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, & Goro Takano Group Reading Danno Joritz-Nakagawa and Takano (Group Reading and Discussion) Keywords: poetry, Japan | Diane Nagatomo From EFL Materials to Academic Books and Papers to Novelist: The Art of Balancing Different Writing Genres (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: EFL materials, academic books/papers, fiction, nonfiction | Stephen Dodd Missing the Point: The Art of Translating Mishima Yukio Keywords: Mishima, translation, challenges |
| 14:00–15:00 | Karen Hill Anton Creating Characters, Constructing Scenes (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: fiction, details, stereotypes, caricatures | Paige Baldwin Ando Dislodging Writer’s Block (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: procrastination, perfectionism, blocks |
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| 15:00–16:00 | T Newfields From Word to Image: Attempts at Visualizing Text (Reading with Q&A) Keywords: poetry, haiku, translation | Jade du Preez Navigating Cross Cultural Approaches in Fiction (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: fiction, novels, representation, sensitivity | Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, Susan Laura Sullivan, Marcus Grandon Collisions, Collages, Collaborations: Using Hybridity Effectively in Your Writing (Panel Discussion) Keywords: hybridity, writing, energize |
| 16:00–17:00 | Isobar Press Poets & Translators Isobar Press: Tenth Anniversary Reading (Poetry Reading) Keywords: poetry | Melinda Falgoust The Writer’s Toolkit: Tuning the Writing Engine When the Words Won’t Come (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: fiction, craft, skills, tools | |
| 19:00–21:00 | Saturday Night Gathering | Saturday Night Gathering | Saturday Night Gathering |
| ROOM 416 Poetry & About JWC | ROOM 417 Fiction & Nonfiction | ROOM 418 Publishing, Marketing, Career & Writing Technique (all genres) |
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| 08:30–09:30 | David Gilbey (Session 1) The All New Reeling and Writhing Poetry Editing Workshop: Preparing for Publication (Craft Workshop) Keywords: poetry, editing, publishing Email debidogirubi@gmail.com to attend. See details in program. | Charles Kowalski The Worldbuilder’s Toolbox (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: worldbuilding, fantasy, science fiction | Suzanne Kamata “This is the Best Book I’ve Ever Read”: Some Thoughts on Endorsements (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: fiction, nonfiction, career, endorsements, blurbs, promotion |
| 09:30–10:30 | David Gilbey (Session 2) The All New Reeling and Writhing Poetry Editing Workshop: Preparing for Publication (Craft Workshop) Keywords: poetry, editing, publishing Email debidogirubi@gmail.com to attend. See details in program. | Benjamin J. McCracken Tips and Tricks for Winning at NaNoWriMo: writing a 50,000 word novel in one month (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: fiction, focus, writer’s block, NaNoWriMo | Elizabeth Coll Oral Narrative: Tricks and Techniques from Jean Stein’s Reinvention of Oral History (Short Lecture with Q&A, Craft Workshop) Keywords: nonfiction, editing, oral history, interviews |
| 10:30–11:30 | Dr Kim Nelson Miles Distilling Poetry from Data (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: poetry, Japan, research | Sara Ellis The Last Chapter: How Group Events Can Motivate Writers in the Completion of Longform Works (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: finishing, writing, community, fiction, other genre |
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| 11:30–13:00 | Lunch Break | Lunch Break | Lunch Break |
| 13:00–14:00 | John Gribble The DIY Writers Conference (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: event organizing, writers conference, community building | Michael Pronko Torturing a Phrase Once More—Rewriting Fiction (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: fiction, rewriting, fiction, writing techniques | Feral Rizvi Building an AI Writing Toolkit: Practical Applications of Generative AI in Writing (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: AI, Learning, Process |
| 14:00–15:00 | Georgina Pope Book to Film (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: book to film, career | Hildred Billings Making Money in Indie Publishing: A Crash Course (Short Lecture with Q&A) Keywords: fiction, indie publishing, self-publishing, earning money |
Benjamin J. McCracken
Tips and Tricks for Winning at NaNoWriMo (writing a 50,000 word novel in one month)
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: fiction, focus, writer’s block, NaNoWriMo
Every year in November hundreds of thousands of writers attempt to write a 50,000-word novel in one month as part of National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo. Of the many ambitious people who start their novel only 10 to 15% actually finish. In this short lecture, I will talk about how I’ve managed to complete NaNoWriMo for six straight years in a row, with specific reference to focus, motivation, and defeating writer’s block.
Benjamin J. McCracken is originally from Michigan. He has lived most of his adult life in Japan where he is currently a professor at Shiga University and the Resident Director of the Japan Center for Michigan Universities. He has published legal research as well as short fiction.
Charles Kowalski
The Worldbuilder’s Toolbox
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: fiction, worldbuilding, fantasy, science fiction
Creating an entirely new world is such a daunting task that even gods have been known to wash away their mistakes and start over. Fortunately, we mortals now have tools at our disposal that make some aspects of the worldbuilder’s craft almost as easy as saying, “Let there be light!” This workshop will introduce basic techniques, handy reference books, and online tools to help with the “Four L’s” of worldbuilding: Lore (creating foundational myths and stories), Land (mapping your world), Life (designing cultures and creatures), and Language (giving your world a distinctive sound, whether you want a simple naming language or Tolkien-level complexity).
Charles Kowalski is the author of the award-winning thriller MIND VIRUS, the political/espionage thriller THE DEVIL’S SON, the historical fantasy SIMON GREY AND THE MARCH OF A HUNDRED GHOSTS, and several short stories. When not writing, he teaches at the Department of Cultural and Social Studies at Tokai University.
Christopher Simons
Lyric to Song, Song to Lyrics
Craft Workshop
Poetry
‘Go and catch a falling star, / Get with child a mandrake root, / Tell me where all past years are, / Or who cleft the Devil’s foot…’ This workshop will introduce a variety of poetic forms that can either be employed for different kinds of short lyric poems (love poems, satires, poems of political protest, etc.) or as forms for song lyrics. Forms covered by the workshop will include the carol, English ballad metre; the Horatian ode; French song forms like the rondeau, roundel, and villanelle; the blues line; and the pop or jazz standard. Workshop participants will read examples of these forms in English poetry and song. Participants will have a chance to practice these forms by adapting an existing poem into lyric form, or by writing their own original lyric poem or song lyric.
Christopher Simons is senior associate professor of literature at ICU Tokyo. He held the Harper-Wood Studentship in Creative Writing at St John’s College, Cambridge. He has published three poetry collections, most recently Flight Risk (Isobar Press, 2021). His criticism and poetry have appeared in UK publications including The TLS.
David Gilbey
The All New Reeling and Writhing Poetry Editing Workshop: Preparing for Publication
Craft Workshop (two sessions)
Keywords: poetry, editing, publishing
A workshop requiring eight participant-writers to submit poems before the conference as well as reading and discussing the work submitted by others in the scheduled session. We will work on a poem or two by each participant, aiming to craft the work to its ‘best dressed’ for publication, drawing on our personal and professional writerly skills & insights in a closely-focussed discussion of drafts. This will give a small group of poets the opportunity to read and discuss in depth a sample of each other’s work. The session will be two hours duration and participants must commit to the two hours. To secure a place, please contact David directly at debidogirubi@gmail.com
David Gilbey lectured in English at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia, was the founding President of Booranga Writers’ Centre and is editor of fourW annual anthology of new writing. He has taught English at Miyagi Gakuin Women’s University in Sendai, Japan 1996, 2000 and 2007. His three collections of poems are Under the Rainbow (1996), Death and the Motorway (2008) and Pachinko Sunset (2016).
Diane Nagatomo
From EFL Materials to Academic Books and Papers to Novelist: The Art of Balancing Different Writing Genres
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: EFL materials, academic books/papers, fiction, nonfiction, instructional
What is it like writing and publishing in multiple genres? How does one switch from one genre, with completely different writing conventions, to another—sometimes within the same day? In this presentation I will describe my development as a writer, starting with how I got my foot in the writing door, how my writing improved over time, the mistakes I made along the way, and how my lifelong dream of publishing a novel was recently accomplished. I will also discuss the benefits and pitfalls of writing in multiple genres and I hope that the audience will participate by sharing their own experiences.
Diane Hawley Nagatomo, living in Japan since 1979, has written numerous EFL textbooks and academic books. Her debut novel, “The Butterfly Café”, was published in July.
Elizabeth Coll
Storytelling: Scaffolding, Subtext and Secondhand Scenes
Short Lecture with Q&A, Craft Workshop
Fiction, Nonfiction
Author Jean Stein’s gift for revealing machinations of power and the underbelly of celebrity was first honed in childhood as the daughter of a Hollywood mogul. With her keen ear and unbridled heart, Jean broke into the literary scene at 22, becoming an editor at The Paris Review upon publication of her interview with then lover, William Faulkner. Jean pioneered the Oral Narrative form in three groundbreaking books by weaving interviews into riveting, cinematic stories. The most famous, Edie: American Girl, whirls around Warhol muse Edie Sedgwick. “This is the book of the Sixties we have been waiting for,” praised Norman Mailer. Elizabeth Coll will present Jean’s unique process for researching, interviewing, and editing as Elizabeth absorbed it while working with Jean in Los Angeles on West of Eden: an American Place. We’ll look at transcripts and drafts, while hearing stories about a brilliant cultural observer and cultivator of intimacy.
Elizabeth Coll is a writer and filmmaker living in Tokyo. She writes a monthly essay in the literary magazine すばる (read: Subaru), and created the video series “Obstacle Course,” for NHK-E. She worked as a journalist and editor in the US and Mexico, and has co-authored two books in Japan.
Feral Rizvi
Building an AI Writing Toolkit: Practical Applications of Generative AI in Writing
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: AI, Learning, Process
Given the rise of Generative AI technologies, the intention of this talk is to find ways to integrate this technology in our writing process in a way that doesn’t take away our creativity, but rather serves as an extension of it. We will focus on the practical application of Generative AI (tools are changing rapidly in the industry) for writers, particularly using prompting and prompt design. Attendees will gain insights into how to leverage various Generative AI tools using creative prompting to overcome writer’s block, write outlines for novels, and visualize characters for world building. We will also examine the advantages and challenges of incorporating AI in writing, and have an open discussion on its implications for roles across the industry will focus on writers.
Feral is a poet and technology enthusiast exploring AI and writing. With a unique perspective as a Pakistani Shia Muslim transmasculine queer individual, Feral’s work delves into self-expression and identity through poetry. With a tech background and multinational experience, Feral enjoys integrating emerging technologies into our lives.
Georgina Pope
Book to Film
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: the journey from page to film, career
I am a Tokyo based film producer who has optioned novels set in Japan and turned them into films. For example Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones (avail on Netflix) and Tokyo by Nicholas Hogg. The latter is in post production and will be released at Toronto Film Fest later this year. I thought writers might be interested in my process of finding works, optioning and producing.
Georgina Pope heads up TOHO-Tombo Pictures, Inc. at Toho Studios, Tokyo. In partnership with Scott Free, in 2019 she produced Earthquake Bird along with Ridley Scott and Ann Ruark. She is currently producing a movie called Berlin Nobody which stars Eric Bana and Sadie Sink, due for release Spring 2024. Both Earthquake Bird and Berlin Nobody are based on novels set in Japan, written by non-Japanese authors.
Hildred Billings
Making Money in Indie Publishing: A Crash Course
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: fiction, indie publishing, self-publishing, earning money
Making even a part-time income in indie publishing is daunting. With over ten years of experience publishing romance and fantasy full time, Hildred shares her tips, tricks, and the “brutal truths” of going from zero to genre hero. It starts with an idea on a page, but ends with a business. This is a basic primer intended for those just getting started or whoever is struggling to get their book seen on the storefronts.
Hildred is a full-time indie publisher who has put out over 100 titles in 10 years. Her bread and butter is romance, but she recently started publishing epic fantasy and is learning some things all over again. She lives in the US but frequently travels to Japan for inspiration.
Isobar Press Poets & Translators—Paul Rossiter, Janine Beichman, Yoko Danno, Warren Decker, Gregory Dunne, Jane Joritz Nakagawa, Philip Rowland, Eric Selland, & Christopher Simons
Isobar Press: Tenth Anniversary Reading
(Poetry Reading)
Keywords: poetry
The first publication from Isobar Press, a small press specialising in English-language poetry and poetic translation from Japan, was a book by founder Paul Rossiter, From the Japanese; it was published on 14 October 2013. Ten years and forty-five books later, on 14 October 2023, eight poets and translators published by Isobar, each with their own strikingly different style, gather from Miyazaki, Kobe, Osaka, Shizuoka, Tsukuba and Tokyo to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the press. Paul Rossiter will speak briefly about the history of the press and the motivation behind it, and each author will briefly introduce and read from their work. We hope you will join us for this celebratory reading!
Paul Rossiter has published eleven books of poetry since 1995. After retiring from teaching at the University of Tokyo, he founded Isobar Press, which specialises in publishing English-language poetry from Japan, and English translations of modernist and contemporary Japanese poetry. More information can be found at: https://isobarpress.com
For biographies of the individual readers, please see their author pages on the Isobar Press website:
Janine Beichman: https://isobarpress.com/authors/janine-beichman/
Yoko Danno: https://isobarpress.com/authors/yoko-danno/
Warren Decker: https://isobarpress.com/authors/warren-decker/
Gregory Dunne: https://isobarpress.com/authors/gregory-dunne/
Jane Joritz Nakagawa: https://isobarpress.com/authors/jane-joritz-nakagawa/
Philip Rowland: https://isobarpress.com/authors/philip-rowland/
Eric Selland: https://isobarpress.com/authors/eric-selland/
Christopher Simons: https://isobarpress.com/authors/c-e-j-simons/
Jade du Preez
Navigating Cross-Cultural Approaches in Fiction
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: fiction, novels, representation, sensitivity
Cross-cultural fiction presents both opportunities and hazards. Opinions are divided on whether and/or when it is appropriate for Western authors to represent the perspectives of non-Western characters. The relationship between the West and Japan, as played out in works of fiction, has generated debate and concern over Orientalism in its various evolutions — from the Madame Butterfly to the Matrix. In the realm of novels, popular titles for an English-language audience present food for thought—from the controversial approach of Arthur Golden, to the celebrated work of Ruth Ozeki. As writers seeking to represent diverse stories, what might we consider when approaching Japanese perspectives in fiction? How easily can we distinguish appreciation from appropriation? What steps have others taken in their literary projects? Rather than providing all of the answers, this session is intended to share research into a selection of perspectives and encourage discussion.
Jade du Preez is a lawyer, artist and award-winning writer of short fiction, who has been published in anthologies and literary magazines. She is currently completing her manuscript for ‘Outsider’, a novel set in Japan and New Zealand concerning questions of identity raised by the koseki family registry system.
Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, Susan Laura Sullivan, & Marcus Grandon
Collisions, Collages, Collaborations: Using Hybridity Effectively in Your Writing
Panel Discussion
Keywords: hybridity, writing, energize
This session will focus on how to employ the concept of hybridity to make fiction, memoir, essay, journalistic writing, poetry, or cross-genre work more exciting for its audience. Examples will be given using excerpts from various published writers, including but not limited to works of the presenters. Things that can be added to a work include visuals, quotations, work in a different genre or language, sound, metaphor, musicality, any type of found work, dialogues, and more. This session is intended to benefit any writer working in any genre or style at any level.
Jane Joritz-Nakagawa has lived in Japan since 1989. Currently she lives in Hamamatsu. She is working on her eleventh full length poetry collection, a novel, short stories and essays. She teaches part time at Shizuoka University but frequents Yatsugatake (Minami maki mura, Nagano) whenever possible. Email is welcome at janejoritznakagawa at gmail dot com.
Susan Laura Sullivan publishes across all genres. Co-editor and contributor to the award-winning Women of a Certain Age (Fremantle Press), she was shortlisted for the 2012 TAG Hungerford prize. Her most recent poetry will appear in Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies in the near future. She resides in Japan.
Marcus Grandon is a multimedia artist, writer, musician, researcher, and educator. His work has been exhibited internationally and won awards in multiple genres. He’s a Teaching Fellow at the University of Birmingham, UK, and a university instructor in Japan. Marcus’ artwork is in private collections of people around the world. Marcus presents at conferences internationally and travels frequently. He makes his home in Shizuoka City, Japan. www.marcusgrandon.com.
John Gribble
The DIY Writers Conference
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: event organizing, writers conference, community building
For the last fifteen years I have been the lead organizer of The Japan Writers Conference, an annual event for English-language writers, translators, editors, publishers, and anyone else concerned with the written and published word. This year marks a shift, as Co-organizer Karen McGee and I step back and turn the organisation of the Conference over to younger and fully competent hands. This session will give a brief history of the JWC, along with a look at the organizing principles we’ve followed and suggestions for those who might be considering organizing a similar event. I hope people from our past will attend, to share their memories and suggestions with those who have volunteered to keep the JWC going.
John Gribble is an American poet, musician, and mostly-retired English teacher. Originally from Southern California, he has been a Tokyo resident since 1993. He earned his MFA at Warren Wilson College and his work has appeared in journals and collections in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Japan. His books include Another Wrong Fedora, Ueno Mornings, and 100 Poets. One Song Each, a translation of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. He has been co-organizer of both the Tokyo Writers Workshop and the Japan Writers Conference.
John Rucynski
The 4 C’s of Getting EFL Textbooks Published
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: EFL textbooks, textbook writing and publishing, cultural familiarity
EFL textbook publishers accept a tiny number of new proposals each year. The four C’s of collaboration, content, culture, and contacts can help aspiring authors breakthrough.
The presenter will expand on how these four C’s helped him to publish a series of textbooks and offer advice for aspiring authors.
John Rucynski is associate professor in the Center for Language Education at Okayama University. He has co-authored several EFL textbooks with journalist Alice Gordenker, including Surprising Japan! and Working in Japan. The latter was a British Council ELTons (English Language Teaching Innovation Awards) finalist.
John Spiri
Regular Writing for Writing Development
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: nonfiction, journaling, freewriting
Most agree that there are great benefits to writing regularly. In this workshop, we will explore approaches to start and maintain a daily writing practice, from the mundane to ones that target publication. Journals of daily experiences can be dull but still have value. The content, final product, and the impact of penmanship will be considered. Another regular writing approach, freewriting, will be distinguished from focused freewriting and their relative merits will be explored. Finally, writing for Readers Write, a section of The Sun magazine that appears online as well as in paper, will be explained. The presenter has extensive experience with all of these approaches and encourages audience members to bring ideas and a short sample of their daily writing practice.
Spiri’s writing career began in 1986 when he published “Valuing the Feminine” in Transformation Times. Spiri has since had many articles published in Kansai Time Out, Japan Times, and elsewhere. He now lives in rural Shiga where he tends silkie chickens, bicycles, trail runs, and plays “go.”
Julia Kimura
Scrivener for Luddites: Let’s publish and flourish!
Craft Workshop
Keywords: productivity, publishing, Scrivener, career
Writers can complete small writing projects such as articles or short stories using a simple word processing programme, such as MS Word or Mac Pages. However, Scrivener is more robust and, therefore, more suitable for larger works, such as writing a novel, a dissertation, or even a chapter in an edited volume. This is in part due to its useful binder feature, which allows authors to easily manipulate sections. In this workshop, participants will learn about the basic features of Scrivener and their benefits. No prior experience with Scrivener is assumed. *The presenter is not affiliated with Scrivener or its developer.
Julia Kimura is an English as a Foreign Language lecturer in the School of Pharmacy at Mukogawa Women’s University. She earned her Ph.D. in Education from Temple University in 2021. She has published in journals under the Japan Association of Language Teaching umbrella, as well as in university journals.
Karen Hill Anton
Creating Characters, Constructing Scenes
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: fiction, details, stereotypes, caricatures
In a first novel, many writers openly admit the principal character is similar, in significant ways, to themselves. The character might be of the same sex and ethnicity, the main scenes might be around defining experiences the writer also faced. Still, the writer would be telling the truth in saying the character is not them, but one they created, and the scenes fabricated. In this session, we will look at how the novelist creates characters that are authentic, protagonists that bear no resemblance to themselves, and situations they’ve never encountered.
Karen Hill Anton is formerly a columnist for the Japan Times and Chunichi Shimbun. She’s the author of the widely acclaimed and multiple award-winning memoir, The View From Breast Pocket Mountain. Her most recent work is a novel, A Thousand Graces. She’s made her home in rural Shizuoka since 1975.
Dr Kim Nelson Miles
Distilling Poetry from Data
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: poetry, Japan, research
The presentation will illuminate the capacity of creative approaches to be able to communicate, “instances when we feel truth has shown its face” (Richardson, 1998, p. 451) and explore how this quality can expand our understanding of social reality and the complexity of human experience in ways inaccessible by conventional research methods as illuminated by this poem by the author below:
Through the heart of a Nepalese village
Small bodies are carried through the rain,
Last cradle in the groove of a tree.
Returning home,
I carried those children in my mind.
Tears falling into my ramen and
onto my tie as I stand on the densha
Grief is embedded into my fascia.
When I open my mouth, I am flooded
with their stories.
Following the lecture, participants will have the opportunity to try creating poetry from a research interview to experience distilling poetry from data.
Dr Kim Nelson Miles is an academic from Torrens University Australia who uses the creative methods of poetry and micro-stories to illuminate human experience. Her PhD thesis featured a set of seventeen poems created from the research data drawn from her fieldwork in Niseko, Japan.
Lowell Sheppard
Writing a Companion Book for a TV Series: What I have learned.
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: nonfiction, first draft, TV series, tips
Lowell`s sailing adventures are the centerpiece of a new TV series being produced and released by the History Channel across Asia. In this session, Lowell will share what he has learned writing a companion book to the TV series. The book provides important insights on to how to redesign your life, awaken dormant dreams, create audacious goals, and take high-stake risks to achieve them. Lowell has learned from both success and failure, but most of all, he has learned the benefits of pure grit and tenacity. The book will inspire the reader to have the courage to reach for the sky and equip them with the tools to navigate a better future. This is Lowell`s 10th book, and he will share what he has learned: How to get started, The importance of the first draft, Getting the right publisher, Dealing with a TV company etc.
Lowell Sheppard is an author, adventurer, YouTuber, and most recently, the host of a new TV series on History Channel called Dare to Dream. He has been cruising Japan full-time for two years and slowly learning what it means to be a digital nomad.
Melinda Falgoust
The Writer’s Toolkit: Tuning the Writing Engine When the Words Won’t Come
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: fiction, craft, skills, tools
You’ve been wrenching at your manuscript for years, or maybe your writing career has just gotten its learner’s permit. Either way, you’re ready to cruise . . . but what do you do when the words won’t come? You tune your writing engine, of course! Pull into the garage with award-winning author Melinda Taliancich Falgoust and fill your toolbox with some practical (and some unusual) tools to help get your writing out of neutral and off the blocks. Beginner to advanced.
Writing children’s and adult fiction, Melinda Falgoust has been honored by the NY Book Festival, the Oshima Picture Book Museum, and the Clive Cussler Adventure Writers Society. Her work has appeared in Reader’s Digest, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, and Harlequin. She presents globally on the business and craft of writing.
Michael Pronko
Torturing a Phrase Once More—Rewriting Fiction
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: rewriting, fiction, writing techniques
About rewriting, the great humorist S. J. Perelman wrote to an editor, “I revel in the prospect of being able to torture a phrase once more.” It often feels that rewriting is either unabashed reveling or unending torture. But between those poles, at a practical level, rewriting is a crucial skill for writers. Rewriting isn’t always “re.” This short lecture with Q&A will suggest a layered set of techniques for rewriting long-form fiction. It will look at rewriting from the sentence to the story, and back again. Practical techniques for rewriting can—and usually should—be applied to the overall story, scenic structure, sentence tension, unifying tropes, and editorial input. By developing ways to rework, redirect, remove, and implant key elements, the vitality and readability of any work can be greatly enhanced. In this talk, specific approaches will be suggested, along with the mindset to best enact those approaches.
Michael Pronko has written for many publications but now focuses on the award-winning Detective Hiroshi series set in Tokyo. He also has three collections of writing about Tokyo and runs the website Jazz in Japan. He teaches American Literature at Meiji Gakuin University.
Paige Baldwin Ando
Dislodging Writer’s Block
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: procrastination, perfectionism, blocks
Whether we’ve been writing for decades or started last Tuesday, all writers know the pain of writer’s block. Though we’d love to slip contentedly into writing every time we try, sometimes ease is elusive. If we’re staring at a blank page, feel trapped in the murky middle of our project, or can’t quite finish up, at any point, despair can accompany stuckness. Together we’ll explore the source of many writing blocks, and learn several practical tools for moving past them. These tools will guide you as you move into the next steps of your work, and point you towards more enjoyment in your writing practice. Through my work as a creativity coach, I’ve helped people complete novels, develop nonfiction books from start to finish, maintain writing momentum, and find their way past countless writing obstacles. Join in to bring more ease and flow to your writing life!
Paige is a writer and creativity coach who helps people move past their creative blocks. As co-host of The Creativity Cafe podcast, she interviews a variety of exciting global artists about their personal creative processes. A former textbook writer and editor, Paige now focuses on poetry and creative non-fiction.
Patrick Murphrey
Pleasure Combined with Publishing: How I Became a Travel Writer and Ideas that Apply to All Publishing
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: marketing, travel writing, articles
While I traveled extensively since high school, I started travel writing five years ago. I started writing about Nagano, where I reside, and have since expanded the travel writing to include all of Japan and other countries. With this presentation, I reflect on my experiences in hopes of offering guidance to those who have an interest in travel writing. On top of that, many of my experiences can apply to publishing in general. Therefore, the tips apply not only to potential travel writers but anyone who hopes to publish any type of articles or books. It gives insight into the marketing of your works as I explain my successes and how my writing career has developed. This
presentation provides advice and inspiration. Thank you for attending.
Patrick Murphrey is a travel writer. He has published articles in magazines, newspapers, and on the internet like Tokyo Weekender, The Japan Times, Reader’s Digest. and Matcha Travel. He currently resides in Nagano and started writing five years ago after he realized the potential of the prefecture.
Paul Rossiter, Masaya Saito, & Eric Selland
This Year at Isobar
Reading with Q&A
Keywords: poetry, haiku, translation, visual poetry
In this session, Paul Rossiter will introduce and read from Tre Paesi and Other Poems by Peter Makin, evocative poems of North Kyoto, Cumbria and his native Lincolnshire. Eric Selland will introduce Brushwork, a reproduction of his notebook of visual poetry using black-ink pen and calligraphic brush. Masaya Saito will introduce and read from his two volumes of translations from the twentieth-century haiku master Saitō Sanki: Selected Haiku 1933–1962, containing translations of more than a thousand haiku, and The Kobe Hotel, Sanki’s picareque prose memoirs of his time in Kobe during the Second World War.
Paul Rossiter has published eleven books of poetry since 1995. After retiring from teaching at the University of Tokyo in 2012, he founded Isobar Press, which specialises in publishing English-language poetry from Japan, and English translations of modernist and contemporary Japanese poetry. More information can be found at: https://isobarpress.com
Peter Makin was born in 1946 in rural Lincolnshire, and educated at King’s College, London. He taught in Mali, England, and for many years in Japan. A major scholar of modernist verse, his publications include important critical books on Ezra Pound and Basil Bunting, and two previous volumes of poetry.
Masaya Saito is from Akita. His haiku in Japanese and English have appeared widely. In 2007 he won the Asahi Haiku Shinjin Award, while his English haiku have been published in the volume Snow Bones, and earlier versions of his translations of Saitō Sanki were published by Weatherhill in 1993.
Eric Selland has published five collections of his own work and has translated several important contemporary Japanese poets. His translation of Hiraide Takashi‘sThe Guest Cat was a New York Times bestseller, and his translation of Nomura Kiwao’s The Day Laid Bare was recommended by The Poetry Book Society, UK.
Philip Rowland
Creating Publishable Short-form Poetry
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: short-form poetry, English-language haiku, innovation
JWC guidelines ask presenters to “make it new” while addressing an audience “concerned with creating publishable writing.” Focusing on short-form poetry, this presentation will explore the notion of the “publishable.” Drawing on twenty years’ experience of editing and publishing a poetry journal, as well as several collections and anthologies, the presenter will discuss what makes a short poem publishable, not merely in terms of matching certain editorial expectations, but also of innovation, or “making it new” (in the Poundian sense). Needless to say, editors’ standards are largely subjective, but there is no getting away from the question of quality: what makes a short poem really worth making public? Through discussion of examples of several kinds of short-form poetry (including haiku), the presenter will suggest some guidelines which may be helpful to those aiming to write short-form poetry of lasting, genuinely publishable worth.
Philip Rowland is a British poet and professor based in Tokyo. He is the founding editor of NOON: journal of the short poem and co-editor of the anthology Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years (W.W. Norton, 2013). His latest book is An Open Parenthesis (Isobar Press, 2022).
Sara Ellis
The Last Chapter: How Group Events Can Motivate Writers in the Completion of Longform Works
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: finishing, writing, community
Even with avid readers, writers can drop out of projects for a number of reasons: day job, life, not to mention that shiny new idea beckoning from the corner. Works in progress languish for years on the far corners of the internet or are shoved away in desk drawers never to be shared with the world. But what if those writers put their heads together to form a community around a shared set of rules and a deadline? This is the story of two nerds who co-created and organized the Finish the Fic challenge, a four month writing event and online cheerleading/ support system meant to help writers complete their abandoned projects. This presentation outlines how we conceived of and organized the event and the lessons we took away. It also delves into the research on the whys and hows of finishing/not finishing long-form writing projects.
Sara Kate Ellis is a Lambda Emerging Writers Fellow and attended the Milford Science Fiction Workshop in 2017 and 2022. Her stories have appeared in Analog, Visions, Fusion Fragment, and Metaphorosis. She is currently an assistant professor at Meiji University in Tokyo.
Stephen Dodd
Missing the Point: The Art of Translating Mishima Yukio
Keywords: Mishima, translation, challenges
This presentation sets out some of the challenges and pleasures involved in any literary translation. Specifically, I describe some theoretical and practical issues surrounding my translation of two novels by the Japanese author, Yukio Mishima: Life for Sale (Inochi urimasu, 1968) and Beautiful Star (Utsukushii hoshi, 1962). Translation is not simply a case of substituting words from one language to another. On the practical side, effective translation requires a personal relationship between translator and literary text. Knowledge of the author’s personal background and the text’s cultural and historical context allows for a nuanced, and arguably more effective translation. From a theoretical perspective, a translator needs to negotiate very divergent opinions regarding what constitutes a ‘correct’ translation. Another factor in the process of translation is the relationship between translator, editor and publisher. Fundamentally, translation is a form of linguistic juggling. We throw words into the air and hope for the best.
Stephen Dodd is Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at SOAS, University of London. He has written widely on modern Japanese literature. He has translated two Mishima Yukio novels: Life for Sale (Inochi urimasu, 1968) in 2019, and Beautiful Star (Utsukushii hoshi, 1962) in 2022, both with Penguin.
Suzanne Kamata
“This is the Best Book I’ve Ever Read”: Some Thoughts on Endorsements
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: nonfiction, fiction, endorsements, blurbs, promotion, career
Endorsements — typically words of praise from an established author — are often deemed an essential marketing tool. However, well-known authors are often besieged with requests for such blurbs, and beginning authors may find approaching them to be intimidating. In this session, I will discuss the importance — or lack thereof — of blurbs, how to get them, how to use them, and how to write them, using examples from my own experiences and those of others.
Suzanne Kamata is the author of editor of many books including, most recently, the poetry collection Waiting (Kelsay Books, 2022), the IPPY-award-winning novel The Baseball Widow (Wyatt-Mackenzie Publishing, 2021), the middle grade novel, Pop Flies, Robo-pets and Other Disasters (One Elm Books, 2020), and the Hi-Lo novel romantic comedy Bake Sale (Gemma Open Door, 2022). She is an associate professor at Naruto University of Education.
T Newfields
From Word to Image: Attempts at Visualizing Text
Short Lecture with Q&A
Keywords: poetry, graphic design, creative video, rasterizing tex
This presentation focuses on the visual elements of poetry and literary texts. Practical ways to pictify poems will be considered along with historical examples. Specifically, procedures for blending, warping, skewing, and “mutating” texts with images will be considered. In addition to long-standing approaches such screen projections, the use of software programs such as Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, Graphic Converter and cellphone apps such as Artomaton, Prisma, Distressed FX, and Photo Blender will be highlighted. Examples of how coding languages such as CSS and HTML5 can be used to change the visual impact of poetic text will also be shown. The presentation concludes with examples of video-poems, in which open source video editors such as DaVinci Resolve and SHOTCUT and used to modify how poetry visually and vocally manifests.
T Newfields has been writing poetry since age 14 and drawing since about age 12. He currently has nineteen books of poetry online and teaches English part time. Constantly tinkering and revising, the most recent version of Tim’s can be seen at www.tnewfields.info/tjn-p.htm. Multilingual versions of some of these works are also available there.
Yoko Danno, Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, & Goro Takano
Group Reading Danno Joritz-Nakagawa and Takano
Keywords: poetry, Japan
Danno, Joritz-Nakagawa and Takano are widely published poets, translators, and prose writers. They will perform selections of their work. One or more presenters will offer comments geared toward beginner and intermediate level poets and writers about how to succeed as a writer or poet. Audience members will also be encouraged to comment.
Born in Japan, Yoko Danno is the author of many books including English language poetry collections and translations from the Japanese. She lives in Kobe.
Jane Joritz-Nakagawa has lived in Japan since 1989. Currently she lives in Hamamatsu. She is working on her eleventh full length poetry collection, a novel, short stories and essays. She teaches part time at Shizuoka University but frequents Yatsugatake (Minami maki mura, Nagano) whenever possible. Email is welcome at janejoritznakagawa at gmail dot com.
Born in the city of Hiroshima, Japan, Goro Takano is an associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Saga University, Japan, where he teaches English to Japanese medical students. He has published six collections of poetry (four in English) and a translation of modernist poet Shiro Murano.