Event: Children’s book illustrators gather for Bologna Children’s Book Fair (Tokyo)
Books, Career, Cartoon/Illustration, Networking, Writers 
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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:
The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators presents
Creative Exchange: The Bologna Experience with Ayano Imai, Kiyo Tanaka and Shimako Okamura
Come join illustrators Ayano Imai and Kiyo Tanaka plus designer/illustrator Shimako Okamura as they share their experiences at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the most important global event in the children’s publishing industry. Included in the topics shared at this exchange of ideas and information will be first-hand experiences of being selected for the Illustrators Exhibition, opportunities that resulted from attending the fair, and more. Visit the Bologna Book Fair site (www.bookfair.bolognafiere.it) before this event, and bring along all your questions and ideas about submitting to the exhibition and promoting your work at the book fair.
Time: Saturday, July 11, 9:30 – 11:30 a.m.
Place: Tokyo Women’s Plaza, Conference Room 1
5-53-67 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo (by the Children’s Castle and United Nations University) For a map see www.scbwi.jp/map.htm
Fee: SCBWI members 1,000 yen; non-members 1,500 yen
This event will be in English and Japanese.
Event: “Increase your Sales Now!” Fundamentals of Professional Selling Seminar (Tokyo)
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JetWit job poster Stephen Palanik (Fukushima Ken, 2004-08) learned of the following career workshop being held by CareerCross, and thought it might be of interest to former JETs in the Tokyo area. Stephen is a translator based in Hamamatsu city, Shizuoka Ken, and he periodically posts job listings and event information for JET alumni.
With the current economic situation, selling has become more critical than ever!
Sales is an integral part of everyday business and quite simply, success in sales equals success on the business front.
No matter your level of expertise, whether you work for a large organization or for yourself, improving one’s ability to close more deals is critical. CareerCross has arranged for two of Japan’s leading sales skills trainers to provide an overview of several areas of professional selling with practical tips and advice that will help you succeed in sales!
How much is it worth to be able to turn more leads into sales? Join CareerCross for one morning designed to increase your sales.
Event: The Basics to Jump-starting your Career in Japan (Tokyo)
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JetWit job poster Stephen Palanik (Fukushima Ken, 2004-08) learned of the following career workshop being held by GaijinPot, and thought it might be of interest to former JETs in the Tokyo area. Stephen is a translator based in Hamamatsu city, Shizuoka Ken, and he periodically posts job listings and event information for JET alumni.
GaijinPot Career Workshop
LAST CHANCE FOR SEATS!
GaijinPot is holding a Career Workshop this Thursday, June 11 from 5 pm at Temple University Japan in Azabu, Tokyo, and there are only a handful of places left!
The Basics to Jump-starting your Career in Japan
Date: June 11, 2009
Time: 17:00 – 19:00
Location: Temple University Japan, Azabu Hall, Room 206
Cost: JPY 2,500
Click here to sign up.
Designed specifically to help all international job-seekers, the workshop will help you jump start your career in Japan and provides a fantastic opportunity to learn more about the different working environments and recruiting processes you are likely to encounter while in Japan.
Event: Tokyo Authors and Illustrators Networking Night
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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:
The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators presents
SCBWI Tokyo Authors & Illustrators Networking Night
Time: Thursday, June 11, 2009, 7:00 pm onward
Place: The Pink Cow, Villa Moderuna B1, 1-3-18 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 150-0002 (Tel. 03-3406-5597 www.thepinkcow.com)
Fee: Entry is free to SCBWI members and non-members. Drinks and food are charged individually.
RSVP: RSVP to info@scbwi.jp by June 9.
This event will be in English and Japanese.
Come and join fellow writers, illustrators and publishing professionals at the fourth annual SCBWI Authors & Illustrators Networking Night at The Pink Cow in Shibuya. SCBWI members and non-members are welcome. Mix and mingle, talk shop or just get to know each other. Feel free to bring along copies of your books, portfolios and other materials to share. Great Pink Cow food and drinks available to order at the bar! Please see www.thepinkcow.com for a map.
For more info: info@scbwi.jp / www.scbwi.jp
New JET Alum Co-Working Group in NYC
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Are you a freelance translator or writer? Do you while away the days in solitary confinement while thinking it might be interesting to meet like minds, have someone to turn around and confirm a sentence with, or just add some more beating hearts to the room?
If so, then get in touch if you’re interested in being a part of the first ever JET alum co-working group in NYC. The goal behind this is to create a community of people who can share space, support, information, and experience. Timing could be every day, once a week or even once a month. It will depend on the level of response and interest.
JETAA NY Learning to Blog Workshop: Part 2
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Update:
I ran the second “JETAA NY Learning to Blog Workshop” last Wednesday evening, April 29 in the back of Cosi on 31st & Park, not knowing quite what to expect. It turned out to be a lot of fun and everyone found it helpful and productive. (Click here to read about the first one.)
- We covered the basics of blogs (what they’re good for; advantages and disadvantages of WordPress, Blogspot, Blogger, etc.; posts vs. pages; using RSS feeds) as well as some more advanced topics (driving traffic; creative strategies; adding users). By the time we were done, everyone had set up their own blog and was ready to go.
- The attendees included two translators and three people who had started their own businesses. One of the translators wanted to create a forum for his writing. The other translator was inspired by the discussion of blogs at the JET Alumni Author Showcase (where Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06) and Rob Weston (Nara-ken, 2002-04) all discussed how they resisted at first but now are glad they followed their publishers’ suggestions to start blogs.)
- One of the JET alum entrepreneurs, Adrienne Smith (CIR Tochigi-ken, 1997-99), founder of Harlem Hip-Hop Tours (www.h3tours.com), said she had been thinking of starting a blog to help promote her tour business but had been holding herself back and appreciated the workshop because it lifted the “technology fog” for her.
- Frank Luo (Fukuoka-ken, 1997-99), a Chinese-English translator, said afterwards, “It was really helpful… An efficient walk through on the mechanics of how to start a blog and why do it on WordPress, plus a few other useful bits of information. We also floated a few ideas on how to expand the scope of the workshops to make them more helpful to aspiring writers as well as those who are trying to promote their business through blogs.” (Frank, by the way, brought a nifty little netbook, which we all sat around and marveled at for 5 minutes.)
- Additionally, Friend of JET (FOJ) Jon Hills, a more experienced blogger who writes the J-News Mini-Roundup column for JetWit and also writes a blog for Hills Learning, a NY-based Japanese language learning services company he started, came to help out and also share a few new tricks (like adding blog functionality to a WindowsLive-based website). He said afterwards he really appreciated having a chance to meet other people running businesses in a setting where everyone was working together towards a common goal.
Going forward
I’ll likely do one or two more blog workshops at Cosi or, if the weather’s nice, perhaps in Bryant Park after work one day. If you’d like to be notified of future workshops, please feel free to contact me at professional [at] jetaany [dot] org.
Looking ahead, it would be nice for the “workshop” to evolve into a monthly “meetup” for JET alums and FOJs at beginner, advanced and in-between levels to spend some time working together, sharing experiences and tips and, of course, helping beginners learn to get started and have an opportunity to ask all the same “dumb” questions that I’ve asked along the way.
Additionally, for readers outside the NYC area, it would be great for people to get JET alum blog workshops going in other areas. It’s a useful career tool and also a nice way to bring people together.
SWET Kansai Presents: Three poets in Japan (Kyoto)
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The Society of Writers, Editors, and Translators (Kansai) presents:
Three Poets in Japan
Time: Sunday 17th May 2009 3:00 – 5:00 pm
Place: Venture Dream Office 2nd Floor Meeting Room (2 minutes from Hankyu Karasuma Station and Shijo Subway Station)
Fee: 500 yen for members and 1,000 yen for non-members
Reservations can be made through e-mail.
Yoko Danno, Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, and Keiji Minato will discuss writing in both English and Japanese, translating and publishing poetry, and will also read their poetry.
Yoko will talk about why she started writing poetry in English more than forty years ago, and how she became interested in the roots and beginnings of Japanese culture and literature, especially the customs, imagery, thoughts and feelings of the folklore recorded in the Fudoki and the Kojiki compiled in the 8th century. Yoko will read some of her poems and translations.
SWET Presents: Writing Multicultural Families (Tokyo)
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The Society of Writers, Editors, and Translators presents:
Writing Multicultural Families
Time: Saturday, May 16, 2009, 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Place: Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan
Fee:
Panel discussion and dinner: 5,000 yen (includes makunouchi bento meal) – Reservations required by May 12; email SWET Events or SCBWI Events, or fax 03-3430-1740
Panel discussion only: 2,000 yen, no reservations required, 6:00-7:00 p.m.
Suzanne Kamata, editor of the literary anthology Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering (Wyatt-Mackenzie Publishing, May 2009), will be accompanied by Leza Lowitz, Holly Thompson and Angela Turzynski-Azimi in reading from and discussing contributions to the book. Call Me Okaasan comprises twenty essays by women writers around the world on the joys and challenges of raising children across two or more cultures. A panel Q&A with all four writers will wrap up the event. Copies of the book will be on sale at the event.
See the URL below for additional details:
http://www.swet.jp/index.php/events/
SWET Presents: Behind Cloistered Walls: On Translating the Memoirs of an Imperial Convent Abbess (Tokyo)
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The Society of Writers, Editors, and Translators presents:
Behind Cloistered Walls: On Translating the Memoirs of an Imperial Convent Abbess
Time: Saturday, May 23, 2009, 3:00 – 8:00 pm
Place: Tankiro Hanten
Fee: 5,000 yen (includes dinner)
RSVP by May 16 (indicate if you require a vegetarian meal)
Bringing to English readers a story of life in the imperial convents of Kyoto long hidden behind cloister walls, this event introduces the just-published bilingual publication, In Iris Fields (Tankosha, 2009). Author Kasanoin Jikun’s story evokes a world where the past-of Heian (Tale of Genji) splendor, imperial dynasties (daughters of emperors were trained to become abbesses), the upheaval of the Meiji Restoration and the wrenching move of the capital to Tokyo (when the very livelihood of Imperial convents and monasteries was in jeopardy)-as if it were yesteryear.
SWET Presents: Writing News on Japan: With Journalist Elaine Lies (Tokyo)
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The Society of Writers, Editors, and Translators presents:
Writing News on Japan: With Journalist Elaine Lies
Time: Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Place: Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan
Fee: 5,000 yen (to include evening meal)
Reservations required by June 19; email SWET events, or fax 03-3430-1740
Whether geisha or anime, samurai or electronics, Japan still remains a fascinating place for much of the world, and papers will pay for stories. As a 20-year resident of Japan who has been writing about the country for most of that time, both freelance and as a reporter for Reuters news agency, Elaine Lies has a few ideas about what kinds of stories will work, as well as those that might not.
Elaine Lies studied Asian Studies at Cornell and UC Berkeley before coming to Japan, where she has lived in the rural north as well as in Tokyo. With experience as a general news reporter covering earthquakes, prime ministers, anime, whaling, and just about anything else you can imagine, she has stories to tell and perspectives to share.
See URL below for more details:
http://www.swet.jp/index.php/events/
JetWit gathering in Tokyo May 15 for Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
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Hi everybody! (especially if you live in Tokyo!)
On May 15, 2009, The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators is hosting a presentation by Laura Rennert, a senior agent of Andrea Brown Literary Agency, about the craft of writing. I plan on attending this event (which is in Shibuya) and would like to meet up with other JetWit-ers who are interested in going.
Please contact me at bokinaka [at] uclalumni [dot] net. The plan is to hit up an izakaya in Shibuya afterwards, so if you just want to show up for food and drinks (and great company) on a Friday night, then e-mail me!
domo!
Bobby Okinaka (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02)
www.fresh-off.blogspot.com
Note: See the post on JetWit about the event, shared previously by author Suzanne Kamata (Tokushima-ken, 1988-90) who serves as the Publicity Assistant for the Tokyo branch of The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
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Author Suzanne Kamata (Tokushima-ken, 1988-90), who serves as the publicity assistant for the Tokyo branch of The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, shared the following announcement:
The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators presents
Literary Agent Laura Rennert
Under the Hood: The Nuts and Bolts of Craft
Time: Friday, May 15, 2009, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Place: Tokyo Women’s Plaza, Conference Room 1
5-53-67 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
(by the Children’s Castle and United Nations University)
For a map see www.scbwi.jp/map.htm
Fee: SCBWI members 1,500 yen; non-members 2,000 yen
This event will be in English.
In this two hour presentation, Laura Rennert, senior agent of Andrea Brown Literary Agency, will lift the hood and focus on the key elements of the writer’s craft: voice, great beginnings, characterization, narrative structure, plot, powerful endings. How do you establish your compact with the reader and then honor it? What makes opening pages irresistible and how do you sustain these page turning elements throughout your work? What causes an agent, an editor, or a reader to put down a book? If voice is that ineffable something you bring to the table, are there concrete ways in which you can work on it? What are the essential elements that go into the creation of “round” characters, and how can you create these multi-dimensional, vivid characters?
Come to this hands-on session and plumb these questions and others as Rennert delves into issues of craft and technique, drawing on her ten years plus experience as an agent, on her Ph.D. and eight years of university experience teaching English Literature, and her own experience as an agent with forthcoming published books.
Laura Rennert is a Senior Agent with Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Founded in New York City in 1981, it was the first literary agency to represent both children’s book authors and illustrators. Rennert has been with the agency for almost ten years, and specializes in all categories of children’s books, from picture books to young adult, graphic novels, fiction and nonfiction. Visit the Andrea Brown agency website at www.andreabrownlit.com.
JET Alum Zach LeNarz has set up a Facebook group called “JETAA Law” for JET alums who work in the legal profession, are in law school or are in any other way connected with the law. (If the link doesn’t work for any reason, just do a search for “JETAA Law” on Facebook.)
So go ahead and sign up. No contract, waiver or non-disclosure agreement required. :-)
JETAA Job Fair in Chicago!
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SATURDAY, April 4 – JETAA JOB FAIR!
This Saturday, JETAA Chicago will be hosting its annual JETAA Job Fair. Although the fair is open to everyone, it may be especially beneficial to those with previous experience in Japan or Japanese language skills. Representatives from top Japanese companies and recruiting firms will be on hand to accept resumes and explore job opportunities in Chicago.
The fair will run from 12-4 with a wine & cheese reception to follow from 4-5. This will be a great opportunity for those interested in networking to meet some Chicago-area Japan-related company representatives!
The fair will be held in the Japan Information Center located at 737 N. Michigan Avenue, 10th floor.
For more information or to submit your resume, please contact Rob Corder at chicagojetaajobfair at gmail dot com.
JETAA NY Meishi Exchange – March 19, 2009
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Thanks to JET alum Francis Lee, we now have photos–really good photos–from last Thursday’s JETAA NY Meishi Exchange networking event, which was held at Aja on 6th Ave. between 9th & 10th Sts.
