NYTimes Book Reviews: Manga and Creative Writing
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Thanks to JETAA Pacific Northwest alum David Kowalsky for sharing the following two JetWit-relevant book reviews from the NY Times:
- Manifesto of a Comic-Book Rebel – Review and comment on A DRIFTING LIFE by Yoshihiro Tatsumi; Translated by Taro Nettleton– a memoir that looks back at the roots of gekiga, Japanese comic book art’s dark side. (Click here for a blog interview with photos with Tatsumi-san and Taro Nettleton.)
- The Ponzi Workshop – Commentary on the creative writing movement and reviews of The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing by Mark McGurl and The Writer’s Notebook: Craft Essays From Tin House.
- Bonus: A NYTimes restaurant review of Inakaya, the Japanese restaurant on the ground floor of the NY Times building in Manhattan where the show is perhaps more important than the food.
Just found out about another JET alum author out there in the JETAA-sphere…
Suzanne (Borsum) Kamata (Tokushima, 1988-90) is the author of the novel Losing Kei (Leapfrog Press, 2008), a picture book, Playing for Papa (Topka Books, 2008) and the editor of three anthologies – Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering (Wyatt-Mackenzie Publishing, 2009), Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs (Beacon Press, 2008) and The Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan (Stone Bridge Press, 1997). Her articles, essays, and short stories have appeared in over 100 publications, and have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize five times. She is also the 2008 recipient of the SCBWI Magazine Merit Award for Fiction. She is currently fiction editor of literarymama.com, and provides manuscript critiques on a freelance basis.
- To learn more about Suzanne you can visit her website at http://www.suzannekamata.com or her blog at http://gaijinmama.wordpress.com (RSS feed here).
- Read an interview with Suzanne Kamata on children’s books and diversity by the blog Kabiliana.
- Go to the Authors/Books section of the JetWit Library to see a complete list of JET alum authors (at least to JetWit’s knowledge).
WIT Life #35: Hero Worship
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Interpreter/Translator/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
A recent survey of Japanese young men regarding which famous figure they would want to become resulted in Ichiro Suzuki,
Ryoma Sakamoto and Ryo Ishikawa for the top 3. The person in the #1 slot is the most recognizable, especially now that he just broke the Japanese record for most career hits with his 3086th in yesterday’s game against the Angels (though the Mariners ultimately went on to lose). In the stands to witness this feat was Ichiro’s bat maker (perhaps craftsman is a more appropriate term) of the past 15 years. He was thrilled to be part of the historical moment, and expressed his desire that the next record he wants Ichiro to break is for 4000 hits. A matsuri mood pervaded Japan in celebrating Ichiro’s feat, and in honor of his accomplishment one store created Read More
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Interpreter/Translator/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Having recently returned from a trip to Japan, during my time there I was reminded of the cultural differences large and s
mall that exist between our two nations. Some were simple things I forgot, such as the sometimes lack of paper towels and dryers in the restrooms and the need to carry around a small towel to dry your hands. Other issues were more deeply integrated into the cultural psyche, such as the surprise that friends expressed when I told them about pregnancy/motherhood here in the States. I happened to visit many pregnant friends and new mothers, and they get to enjoy a long stay in the hospital after giving birth. Also, for working mothers the amount of time you can take off in Japan before returning to the workplace is quite generous (for some cases such as civil servants a year compared to the typical three months here), although I think the tendency for women not to return to work after having a baby is more common than here in the States.
Anyway, the news this morning profiled a story that fits into the larger cultural difference category. According to the report, actor Shunta Nakamura (31), the son of actor Masatoshi Nakamura (58) and actress Junko Igarashi (56), was arrested this weekend for Read More
Robert Weston’s (Nara-ken, 2002-04) rhyming novel Zorgamazoo has just received another honor. Below is the post by Rob on his blog wayofthewest.wordpress.com:
Unbelievable. My little black book simply won’t stop slapping me in the face with the most pleasant of surprises.
GET THIS: Zorgamazoo is on the shortlist for the 2009 E.B. White Read Aloud Award. And here’s what I have to say about it:
EEEEEEEEEEGAD!
(ahem. )
Now then. What this means: E.B. White, as I’m certain you already know, is the author of Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little (he’s also the eponymous “White” of Strunk and White’s Elements of Style).
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Another good post from my brother Greg on TheDigitalists.com, this one on Kindle and the future of book publishing. Definitely worth a read by JET alums authors and those working in publishing, especially on the heels of the JET Alumni Author Showcase.
Much of the chatter surrounding Mark Bowden’s Vanity Fair piece on the New York Times has focused on the anonymous quotes slagging publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. But what I found the most fascinating was the passage dissecting Sulzberger’s invocation of the phrase “platform agnostic”:
When the motion-picture camera was invented, many early filmmakers simply recorded stage plays, as if the camera’s value was just to preserve the theatrical performance and enlarge its audience. To be sure, this alone was a significant change. But the true pioneers realized that the camera was more revolutionary than that. It freed them from the confines of a theater. Audiences could be transported anywhere. To tell stories with pictures, and then with sound, directors developed a whole new language, using lighting and camera angles, close-ups and panoramas, to heighten drama and suspense. They could make an audience laugh by speeding up the action, or make it cry or quake by slowing it down. In short, the motion-picture camera was an entirely new tool for storytelling. To be platform agnostic is the equivalent of recording stage plays.
I had a similar thought last week when, after months of reading about it and stealing envious glances at it on the subway, I had a chance to play around with the Amazon Kindle. It’s a pretty cool product, though it’s clearly still early in the product life cycle; I’d guess it’s roughly analogous to where the iPod was six or seven years ago. But I also realized that in terms of societal impact, we’re even earlier in the process. So far, the Kindle has made the tiniest dent in terms of how books are distributed. In the coming years, it will change how they’re promoted. And one day in the not-too-distant future, it will begin to transform our entire notion of what a book is.
Read the rest of this entry »
WIT Life #32: Hisashiburi Hello
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Interpreter/Translator/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
I have been on a bit of a hiatus as I was traveling around Japan for the last 2 weeks! It’s always great to go back and experience what a wonderful, crazy, beautiful, amazing country it is. This trip was particularly special as I had the chance to visit my JET hometown of Kumamoto where the sakura were in full bloom!
The ones in Tokyo were just starting to bud, but I unfortunately wasn’t able to see them in all their grandeur. I was, however, able to Read More
Even more video from the JET Alumni Author Showcase
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Thanks to Lawrence Brenner (www.lawrencebrenner.com), an online video and content specialist who covers a lot of Roland Kelts’ events, we have even more video from the JET Alumni Author Showcase laid out in nice YouTube video clips:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E204A157B05C1AEC
Zorgamazoo wins 3rd prize at New York Book Show
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Good news to report from Rob Weston (Nara-ken, 2002-04), author of the rhyming novel Zorgamazoo:
One reason I travelled to NYC last week was because my book was up for a design award from the Bookbinder’s Guild of New York, presented at the New York Book Show.
…I’m very pleased to announce that Zorgamazoo won 3rd prize in the Young Adult Hardcover category! The book was beaten out by two other impressive entries, Moribito by Nahoko Uehashi, which took 2nd prize, and Ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley, which claimed the category.
(Click here to read the rest of Rob’s post)
(Click here to watch a video clip of Rob reading reading a selection from Zorgamazoo at the recent JET Alumni Author Showcase.)
Roland Kelts interviewed by AnimeNewsNetwork’s Chicks-On-Anime
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A good (and long) interview with Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, by Bamboo and Sara (aka Chicks-On-Anime) has been posted on the AnimeNewsNetwork.
JETAA DC Book Club to read “An Artist of the Floating World”
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Via JETAA DC:
Hi Everyone,
JETAADC’s very own book club – with the working name of JBook – is up and running. This month we’ll be reading An Artist of the Floating
World Kazuo Ishiguro. We’ll meet on Monday, April 20 at 6:30pm at the Penn Teaism (in the downstairs area). New members are welcome! Just RSVP a little ahead of time so we know how many tables to push together.
Happy Reading,
-Dan
In case you missed it (or enjoyed it so much you want to relive it), below is a highlights clip from the JET Alumni Author Showcase along with clips of each of the three author readings, all of which took place March 22 in NYC. (Bonus tip: Try to picture each author teaching an English class in a Japanese high school as you watch them do their readings.)
Highlight Clips
James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06), author of The Order of Odd-Fish
Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S.
Robert P. Weston (Nara-ken, 2002-04), author of Zorgamazoo
Review: JET Alumni Author Showcase
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JETAANY Hosts First Author Showcase
By Gina Anderson (Nara-ken, 2003-05), former JETAA DC newsletter chair and Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02), editor of JQ (JETAA NY) Quarterly Magazine
New York City’s Holiday Inn hosted a summit for published JETs as JETAANY launched its debut JET Alumni Author Showcase on March 22. The panelists included pro writers Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), Robert Weston (Nara-ken, 2002-04) and James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06). (Click here and here for photos and here for video clips.)
Drawing over 60 JET alums, friends and family, the event kicked off with some words from Akira Sugiyama, director of the Japan Information Center of the Consulate General of Japan in New York. Moderator and playwright Randall David Cook (Fukui-ken, 1991-93), creator of the critically acclaimed Off Broadway plays Sake with the Haiku Geisha and Fate’s Imagination, asked each author to share a favorite selection of their works with the crowd.
A professor at three different universities including Tokyo University, a writer and editor for two magazines and a columnist for the Yomiuri Shimbun, Kelts spoke about Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S., his non-fiction book about the eponymous subject. He began by Read More
Many thanks to JET alum Vlad Baranenko for capturing the JET Alumni Author Showcase in photographs. Click “Read More” below to see all the photos.
Roland Kelts recent articles in The Daily Yomiuri and Adbusters
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Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, has two recent articles published.
Daily Yomiuri: Soft Power Hard Truths / American anime fans party, but don’t pay
On the widening gap between Japanese and American fandom: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/arts/20090320TDY13002.htm
Adbusters: Dame-Ren (No Good People) – A glimpse into Japan’s embrace of Western-style capitalism
On Japan’s new generation of dropouts and street performers: http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/80/japan_no_good_people.html
