Middle of the table on the left, Vahina Vara, and opposite her, Andrew Foster Altschul. WiK members left to right, Ian Richards, (Yuki from Japan Times), Jann Williams, Josh Yates, Gordon Maclaren, Eric Johnston, Juliet Carpenter and Gary Tegler. (photo John D.)

 

December 2 at Kushikura near Oike Takakura, eight WiK members had an enjoyable dinner evening with Vauhini Vara, journalist, fiction writer and winner of the O. Henry Prize, together with her husband novelist Andrew Foster Altschul, author of Deus Ex Machina and a former fellow at the Breadloaf and Sewanee Writers conferences. Between them the couple have a glittering array of achievements and were visiting Kyoto for five days while working on Semester at Sea, a study-abroad programme that takes place on a ship. Thanks to Eric Johnston for organising the event.

From Wikipedia…

Vauhini Vara is a journalist, fiction writer, and the former business editor of newyorker.com. She lives in Colorado and is a contributing writer for the New Yorker’s website. Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, she was raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan (Canada) and in Oklahoma City and Seattle in the United States.

Guest Vauhini Vara in red, middle right (photo Josh Yates)

She was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal for almost ten years, where she covered Silicon Valley and California politics. In 2013, she left the Wall Street Journal to launch Currency, the business section of newyorker.com. She has written for Harper’s Magazine, Fast Company, The Atlantic and Businessweek and WIRED. In 2017 she worked as a staff writer for California Sunday, covering politics in the western United States

Vara is a recipient of the O. Henry Award for her fiction writing, and has published stories in Tin House, ZYZZYVA, among other publications. She studied writing at Stanford University and the Iowa Writers Workshop.

 

Andrew Foster Altschul is an American fiction writer. He is the author of the novels Deus Ex Machina, which Michael Schaub, in his NPR review, called “brilliant… one of the best novels about American culture in years,”[1] and Lady Lazarus, and his short fiction and essays have been published in Esquire, McSweeney’s, Ploughshares, Fence, and One Story. His short story “Embarazada” was selected for Best American Nonrequired Reading 2014 and his short story “A New Kind of Gravity” was anthologized in both Best New American Voices 2006 and the O.Henry Prize Stories 2007.

Guest Andrew Altschul middle left (photo Josh Yates)

In 2016, with Mark Slouka, he co-authored Writers On Trump, an open letter opposing the candidacy of Donald Trump for President that was signed by nearly 500 writers, including ten winners of the Pulitzer Prize. He has written for political venues including The Huffington Post and Truthdig, was a contributing author of Where to Invade Next (McSweeney’s, 2008), and was the co-organizer of the Progressive Reading Series, a series of literary readings in San Francisco that raised money for progressive political candidates from 2004-2008. From 2008-2011 he was the founding books editor of The Rumpus, an online magazine started by Stephen Elliott in late 2008. He remains a contributing editor to The Rumpus, as well as to the literary journal Zyzzyva.

He currently teaches at Colorado State University. He is married to The New Yorker journalist and fiction writer Vauhini Vara.

 

(photo Josh Yates)

 

(photo Kushikura staff)