Popp, Laura (Mie-ken, 2008-Present) is a current JET who writes fantasy and science fiction for children and young adults, and is an occasional playwright/film maker. Her short work includes a short story titled “In theShadow Realm” and a documentary she made in Malawi. To read about her amazing adventures all over Japan, go to her blog at laurajanepopp.livejournal.com. (And check out the Authors/Books section of the JetWit Library for a list of more writers in the JET-o-sphere.)
Hello, everyone! I`m new to Japan and the JetWit blog, so allow me to introduce myself! I`m a sci-fi/fantasy young adult writer from Oklahoma in the U.S. I love to travel, as you can probably tell from my blog, so most of my posts will be about my wonderful adventures all over Asia and any writing news I learn about.
This week I`ll be reporting on two writers` events I attended last weekend, a critique meeting in Osaka and a conference in Kyoto! For those of you who don`t know, there is an excellent group called English Writers and Readers that meets every Saturday in Osaka from 2:30 to however long people want to stay. It’s not just for writers; if you love to read there is also a book club and various other discussion boards and events. But if you are a writer, of any genre or form, you can email your work to group members and have it critiqued the following Saturday. For me it was very productive. They tore apart (figuratively) my story “Tapestry of Time,” but now I know how to make it better. I will warn you that the turnout for meetings tends to be very low (there were only four of us), so if it`s quite a trek for you, I suggest getting a general idea of how many will be there before you go all that way.
One of the girls in the writers` club, Rianna, was really sweet and let me stay with her Saturday night. On Sunday morning, I headed off to the writers’ conference in Kyoto. I was a little disappointed. Good luck trying to publish an English fiction book in Japan, they said, because no publishers here accept them. There are English printers here, however, and a strong potential market of foreign readers. So if you have a book already published elsewhere and would like to promote it in Japan, there are several resources available to you, including Printed Matter Press. Here is their website: http://www.printedmatterpress.com/. And of course, if you want to go the self-publishing route, these guys can help with that too.
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Other than that, the “Revising Your Novel” seminar, presented by Holly Thompson, was most helpful. Her basic strategy was to systematically go through your novel and create a detailed spreadsheet of necessary revisions in character, setting, theme, etc. and mark these various “threads” wherever they appear with colored sticky notes. Then, read through the novel with only one of these threads in mind. That way you can stay focused and not get bogged down by the sheer size of the project. Here’s a picture of her session:
During lunch, I happened to run into the right people at the right time. I was looking for a place to eat my bento and sat with three ladies outside. We got to talking, and one of the three happened to be Suzanne Kamata (Tokushima-ken, 1988-90) who I`d been trying to get a hold of for some time. She’s an American published young adult writer living in Japan who’s involved in the SCBWI (Society of Children`s Book Writers and Illustrators). She invited me to go to their major conference in Yokohama on November 28th that`s going to host Alvina Ling, a Senior Editor at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. What an amazing opportunity! For those who are interested, the registration deadline is November 4th. You can sign up at their website, http://www.scbwi.jp/.
To hear more about the Kyoto conference and my other adventures in Japan, visit my full blog at laurajanepopp.livejournal.com!
We know there are some JET alums running in the NYC Marathon this coming Sunday, November 1. If you’re one of them, or if you know a JET alum who is running, please post your name in the comments section of this post (or e-mail jetwit at jetwit dot com.
Just thought it would be nice to have a list of all of the JET alums who will be participating so we can oen suru for you.
Yoroshiku and minasan ganbatte kudasai!
JETAA Florida activities: Monthly meeting, Orlando Japan Festival and call for Newsletter submissions
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Via JETAA Florida:
Hello everyone. Here are two upcoming JETAA events I’d like you all to be aware of.
- This week Sunday, the 25th at 7:00 pm I will host our monthly meeting at Stardust Coffee in north Orlando. If this is too late for you please give me a shout as I am willing to start a little bit earlier if this would accommodate more people. The address of Stardust is: 842 E Winter Park Rd, Orlando, FL
- On Sunday, November 8th from 12:00 to 5:00 pm the Orlando Japan Festival will take place in Hunters Creek village in south Orlando. This is a great festival, that attracts big crowds, and has a ton of stuff to see, as well as eat. I’d like to make this our o-kaeri-kai for the recent returnees. Afterwards I was thinking of renting out the karaoke room at Aki restaurant in Orlando. Please reply back if you are interested so I can look into making a reservation. http://www.orlandojapanfestival.com
- Finally, I’m requesting contributions for our chapter newsletter. I am going to write a couple of articles myself, but it would be great to have some more input from the rest of our members. If you would like to promote something Japan related here in Florida, or submit a Japan related article please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.
Thanks
Tom Gregorich
Event: Suzanne Kamata to present Educational Workshop for Families of Children with Learning Differences (Tokyo)
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Author Suzanne Kamata (Tokushima-ken, 1988-90) who also serves as the Publicity Assistant for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, shared the following:
TELL Exceptional Parenting Program: Educational Workshop for Families of Children with Learning Differences/Diverse Needs by Tokyo English Life Child and Family Services
We welcome you to our Writing workshop: Parenting kids with special needs presented by Suzanne Kamata, writer, poet, and mother.
Suzanne will give a presentation on Reading and Writing Our Special Children. She will discuss the importance of writing about children with special needs and share examples of literature current and past about parenting children with special needs. She will also conduct brief writing exercises, which may be used in journaling, or creative writing for pleasure or publication.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Registration: 2:30pm to 2:45pm; Workshop: 2:45pm to 4:15pm; Information sharing: 4:15pm to 5:00pm
Admission: Donations accepted
RSVP to tellparentgroup@hotmail.com
Location: Minami Aoyama Conference Room next to TELL office
Address: 5-4-22 Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0062 Phone: 03-3498-0231
Suzanne Kamata was born and raised in Grand Haven, Michigan. After graduating from the University of South Carolina with a degree in English, she came to Japan in 1988 on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program. During her second year in Japan, she met the man who would become her husband and has lived in Tokushima Prefecture ever since. She now lives with her husband and ten-year old twins in Aizumi and teaches part-time at Naruto Educational University.
Suzanne is also the author of a novel, Losing Kei (Leapfrog Press, 2008), editor of several anthologies, among them Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs (Beacon Press, 2008) and Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering (Wyatt-Mackenzie Publishing, 2009), and fiction editor of literarymama.com.
If you would like to have more information on the Exceptional Parenting Program or would like to attend the workshops, please contact Birgit Zorb-Serizawa at tellparentgroup@hotmail.com.
“Two Authors Send Readers on Mysterious Journeys Through Japan:”Chin Music Press Book Reading at Capitola Book Café- Oct 20 (Santa Cruz, CA)
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Chin Music Press, the Seattle-based publisher owned and run by Bruce Rutledge (MEF Program Chiba-ken, 1985-87) is headed to Northern California as author Todd Shimoda reads from his latest novel, Oh! A mystery of mono no aware, at the Capitola Book Café (1475 41st Avenue in Capitola) on Tuesday, October 20th at 7:30pm. Shimoda joins anthropologist and writer Liza Dalby, who will be reading from Hidden Buddhas: A Novel of Karma and Chaos. This event is free to the public.
The Capitola Book Café hosts Shimoda and Dalby under the title of “Mysterious Journeys Through Japan” with discussion of their usage of Japan as a setting for emotional paths towards moments of enlightenment. Here’s a blurb about both books from the event webpage:
Oh! by Todd Shimoda was selected as an NPR Summer Reading pick and combines visual artistry with patient and brilliant storytelling. Zack Hara is a technical writer trudging through life in LA until he leaves everything to travel to Japan. There, searching for an emotional life, Zack becomes entwined with a tragic poet, a sensual but disillusioned woman, and young people form suicide clubs— all propelling him down a dangerous path. “A triumphant kick in the pants for anyone who doubts the future of paper-and-ink books.” — Lucia Silva
Liza Dalby returns to Book Café with a novel that Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of A Geisha, describes as “…(her) best work yet; with its fascinating story of characters caught up in a world they themselves don’t understand.” Hidden Buddhas explores the karmic connections between Japanese fashion, pilgrimage, dying honeybees, murder by blowfish, and the Buddhist apocalypse. Something of a Buddhist Da Vinci Code, Dalby’s stunning new novel travels to the unknown corners of Japan and through time to expose a mystery you will never forget!
Check out previous JetWit posts about Bruce Rutledge here and a Japan Times review of Oh! here.
On a related note, Bruce is joined at Chin Music Press by two other JET alums: designer Joshua Powell (Saitama-ken, 2005-07) and PR intern Jessica Sattell (Fukuoka-ken, 2007-08).
Japan Association of Translators Manhattan mixer – Oct 30
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Professional translator Terry Gallagher shared another good event for translators with JetWit, this one via the honyaku Google Group:
As part of its ongoing efforts to develop an international presence, foster new talent, and connect with peer organizations, the Japan Association of Translators (JAT) will be sponsoring a mixer in Manhattan on Friday, October 30, 2009, for veteran and aspiring translators/interpreters alike. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to network, find out more about JAT, and socialize with other translators/interpreters in the big city….Non-members are most welcome. Cash bar, with partial subsidy from JAT.
WHEN: Friday, October 30
Starting: 10:30 PM (after the traditional Friday night JLD dinner
[http://groups.google.com/group/honyaku/browse_thread/thread/c153d891486ac1c8])
Ending: During ATA’s Annual Conference (?)
[https://www.atanet.org/conf/2009/sessionschedule.php#5]
WHERE: Press Box (932 Second Ave., between 49th and 50th Streets)
[http://www.thepressboxnyc.com/index2.html]
Signup (by 10/26; and for last-minute notices/updates):
http://jat.org/2009/10/16/jat-new-york-mixer-oct-30-2009/
Feel free to pass the word on, and hope to see you there!
ニューヨークでJATネットワークパーティを実施します。 会員・非会員を問わず、翻訳に興味のある方ならどなたでもご参加いただけます。 翻訳未経験者の方にとってはベテラン翻訳者と交流する絶好の機会です。
日時: １０月３０日（金） 10:30pm～
場所: The Press Box (http://www.thepressboxnyc.com/index2.html)
参加費: 一部JATが負担。追加分はキャッシュバー。
参加希望者は、１０月２６日（月） までに
[http://jat.org/2009/10/16/jat-new-york-mixer-oct-30-2009/]
へご予約お願いいたします。
American Translators Association Annual Conference in NYC Oct 30
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Professional translator Terry Gallagher shared the following with JetWit:
The American Translators Association holds its annual conference in NYC at the end of this month. It includes a dinner for the Japanese language division, which will be on Friday, Oct. 30 at IL Punto Ristorante, 507 Ninth Ave.
Contact person is Mina Seat, minaseat [/at/] gmail [/dot/] com More info here: https://www.atanet.org/conf/2009/
Cost is $53. It might be late to sign up, but it was an open invitation, and you might still be able to talk your way in. There will be lots and lots of working translators/interpreters there, and you might be able to pick up a bunch of new ideas.
Japan Society (NY) Weekly eNewsletter Oct 13-18, 2009
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JETAA UK: Sake tasting at Tsuru (Oct 20)
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Via JET alum Vanessa Villalobos, the Communications Officer for JETAA UK as well as the publisher of the Isshoni London website.
In case you didn’t know, sake tastings are all the rage in London. Do you really know your Nihonshu? Following the great success of our last chilled sake tasting in June, we’ll be holding a cosy autumn tasting with delicious, warming sakes. Join us for an educational night, with sake and accompanying nibbles.
WHEN: Tuesday, October 20, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
The Tsuru Restaurant tasting includes 4 different types of sake, served with sushi and a selection from Tsuru’s Japanese Tapas menu. At only £18 per person this is truly great value! First come, first served… reserve your place quickly to avoid disappointment.
If you’d like to attend, please register by sending an email to Vanessa at londoncomms [at] jetaa.org.uk
Details of how to secure your place by sending £18 will then follow.
Two “translating” events at the Donald Keene Center at Columbia University
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Via Kia Cheleen (CIR, Aichi-ken 1996-98, ALT 1998-1999), Assistant Director at the Donald Keene Center on Japanese Culture at Columbia University. To get on their e-mail list for future events, send an e-mail to donald-keene-center at columbia dot edu.
1. “Translation and its Postcolonial Discontents: Controversy over Toma Seita’s Reading of Kim Soun’s Japanese Translation of Korean Poetry in Postwar Japan”
October 14th, 2009 (Wednesday) 5:30-7:00 PM; Serk-bae Suh (University of California-Irvine); Location: 403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. and Amsterdam Avenue) http://www.keenecenter.org/content/view/100/126/#oct14
2. “What Will Be Almost Permanently Lost in Translation? A Cognitive Linguistic View”
November 5th, 2009 (Thursday) 4:00-5:30 PM; Seiichi Makino (Princeton University); Location: 569 Lerner Hall, Columbia University (114th St. and Broadway) http://www.keenecenter.org/content/view/100/126/#nov
Kabuki in San Francisco for $10-$20!?!
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Thanks to JETAA Northern California Co-President Rod McLeod for sharing the following:
This rare and special event introduces audiences to the history of kabuki, featuring an informative lecture and exquisite performance of the classical, stylized Japanese theatre form. Celebrated kabuki actors Kyozo Nakamura and Matanosuke Nakamura lead a 14-member troupe from the world-renowned Shochiku Co.
Actors
- Kyozo Nakamura
- Matanosuke Nakamura
Musicians
- Ichishiro Yoshimura: Classical Japanese vocal ensemble
- Ishinosuke Yoshimura: Classical Japanese vocal ensemble
- Shoen Kineya: Shamisen
- Rokujiro Kineya: Shamisen
- Dentaro Tanaka: Japanese flute
- Tashu Mochizuki: Japanese standing drum
- Takijuro Mochizuki: Japanese shoulder drum
Presented by the College of Creative Arts and College of Humanities at San Francisco State University, General Consulate of Japan and Japan Foundation.
Press coverage
Hokubei Mainichi, Oct. 17, 2009
Event: The World of Children’s Book Publishing with Alvina Ling (Yokohama)
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Author Suzanne Kamata (Tokushima-ken, 1988-90) who also serves as the Publicity Assistant for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, shared the following, which she mentioned is, “a great opportunity for writers in Japan to meet one of the top editors in the world of children’s books.”
The World of Children’s Book Publishing
with
Alvina Ling, Senior Editor
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Saturday, November 14, 2009, 10:30 am – 5:00 pm
Manuscript critiques 8:30-10:00 a.m.
Place: Yokohama International School, Middle Building Cafeteria, Yokohama
For access information and maps, visit www.yis.ac.jp
Fee: Advance Registration 4,000 yen SCBWI members; 7,000 yen nonmembers (contact info@scbwi.jp by November 5)
At the Door 5,000 yen SCBWI members; 8,000 yen nonmembers
Reservations: Required! Contact info@scbwi.jp to reserve your place.
This event will be in English.
SCHEDULE
************ Read More
Event: JETAA Sydney Returnees Networking and Careers Night – Oct 30
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Via Michelle Fox of JETAA Sydney:
Returnees Networking & Careers Night: “Jump into life after JET”
Looking for a job, or a change of career? Come to our Networking and Careers night for JET Returnees, or any jobseekers in Sydney.
When: October 30, 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Where: The Japan Foundation
Keynote speaker – Paul Burgess, Author of Natural Born Success as shown on Today Tonight.
Roland Kelts to speak at anime event in St. Louis – Sat, 10/3
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Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, will be giving a talk in St. Louis tomorrow as part of the Anime at UMSL event featuring renowned translator of anime and manga, Frederik L. Schodt, as well as a screening of the film PAPRIKA. The event is being run by the University of Missouri at St. Louis’ Center for International Studies.
All you Missouri JET alums out there, make sure to introduce yourself and say hi if you happen to attend.
Click here for full details: http://www.umsl.edu/services/cis/special_projects/ANIME_at_UMSL/anime_at_umsl.html
Event: Third Annual Japan Writers Conference
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Author Suzanne Kamata (Tokushima-ken, 1988-90) who also serves as the Publicity Assistant for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, shared the following:
Do you wonder what’s the best way to get your ESL textbook into print and to market? Or how you can have your poem catch an editor’s attention? What’s the best way to get that rough draft novel smoothed out and readable? Why is an abstract such a big deal? How do different translators approach a Japanese text? Or more simply, where are the others who share your interest in the written word?
Possible answers to those and almost any other question one might have about writing, editing, translating, and publishing will be offered up at the Third Annual Japan Writers Conference. This year’s Conference will take place on the weekend of October 17th and 18 on the campus of Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts in Kyoto.
More than thirty writers, journalists, editors, translators, film makers and other wordsmiths will offer up their expertise in fifty-minute presentations, filling both days. And what is perhaps most remarkable is the event is completely free and open to all who want to attend. The Conference is a completely volunteer event.
Among those scheduled to present are novelist and children’s book author Holly Thompson, author/anthologist Hillel Wright, columnist Arudou Debito, literary translator Juliet Winters Carpenter, journalist Eric Johnston, article writer John Spiri, and poet Jane Joritz-Nakagawa. Novelist and diplomat Vikas Swarup has also agreed to appear. There are also plans for various writing groups and organizations to hold special meetings to introduce themselves to prospective members. And there will be a gathering for all attendees and presenters at a local restaurant on Saturday evening.
According to Juliet Carpenter, whose school is hosting this year’s conference, the Imadegawa campus of Doshisha Women’s College, across from the Gosho, is “a terrific location, easily accessible. We have a very nice campus that has a brand-new building with state-of-the- art ‘bells and whistles,’ and some beautiful Meiji-era Registered Cultural Property buildings, nicely preserved.”
Although the Conference takes place in Japan and has a decidedly Japanese focus, it will be a predominantly English-language event. It is also an international affair, with presenters from Canada, the US, China, India and other nations. While some of the presenters are Japan residents, others are short-term visitors and will provide a more global perspective on the writing life.
Complete information about the Third Annual Japan Writers Conference can be had at:
