Text and photos by Edward Levinson fall windtakes the unknown roadspreading wings 秋の風 未知の道行く翼伸ばすaki no kaze, michi no michiyuku, tsubasa nobasu People often ask me why I came to Japan and what its like to make a home in a different culture; it has always been difficult to tell the “long story.” My life here …Read More
Category: Featured Writers (Page 8 of 26)
Writers in focus
(Editorial note: Due to WordPress formatting, the extract below is indented differntly from the original and may have lost clarity in the transposition.) David Joiner writes: ‘The following is a draft of the first chapter of a 260-page novel I wrote in three weeks, and which now requires much revision to develop more depth, specifically …Read More
After Act by Stephen Mansfield I’m reading a short story by Michael Moorcock, in which the narrator describes his time in Hamburg, among friends who believed they were “descendants of those who had perished when Atlantis was destroyed by atom bombs dropped from flying saucers.” At any other time, in normal circumstances, that is, I …Read More
by Jann Williams There is one woman that connects me with Kyoto like no other. We met a few years ago at a gallery soiree and have been inseparable ever since. Hailing from different eras, different countries and different cultures, this apprentice geisha and I share an enduring bond. Both of our lives have been …Read More
An Evening Arrival in Kyotoby Natsume SōsekiTranslation copyright Richard Donovan (Originally published in Translating Modern Japanese Literature, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019.) Swift as a shooting star, the steam train has traversed 200 leagues of springtime landscape before shaking me off at Shichijō Station. As my heels strike the platform, sending up a chilly echo, the …Read More
The World through the Magic Lantern – Nicolas Bouvier in KyotoBy Robert Weis ‘Scent of pine tree. Soaring foliage, stiff and alive with cicadas. In a cemetery a priest in a raspberry robe recites the sutras on a tomb, and it is like the sound of a distant fountain.’* Almost like an iconographic momentum, these …Read More
Book review by John Dougill There’s often a mystery about why some books last and others fade from public awareness. That certainly applies in this case, because for some reason this reviewer fails to understand, A Zen Romance fails to come up in talk of best novels about Japan. Shamefully it was not even included …Read More
Nanao Sakaki (1923-2008) was not a Kyoto writer, but a wandering poet who belonged to everywhere and nowhere. By all accounts he led a remarkable life and wrote remarkable poems. Some folks in Kyoto had the pleasure to know him, particularly Ken Rodgers who accompanied him on a tour to Australia. Thanks to Ken for …Read More
Given that you live in New York, could you explain why you want to belong to Writers in Kyoto? I have visited Kyoto several times since my son made it his home. In that time, I have found an unusual connection to the city that isn’t explained only by my connection to him. When I …Read More
(The following article first appeared in Echoes: Writers in Kyoto Anthology 2017) Three Old Men of Kyotoby Alex Kerr Harold StewartDavid KiddWilliam Gilkey I don’t know if young men are like this any more, but I was the sort of young man who sat at the feet of old men. I hung on their every …Read More
WiK Writing Competition
WiK Anthologies
The Nature of Kyoto (2023)
Eds. Lisa Twaronite Sone & Robert Weis
Foreword by Pico Iyer
Structures of Kyoto (2021)
Eds: Rebecca Otowa & Karen Lee Tawarayama
Foreword by Judith Clancy
Encounters with Kyoto (2019)
Eds: Jann Williams & Ian Josh Yates
Foreword by Juliet Winters Carpenter
Echoes (2017)
Eds: John Dougill, Amy Chavez, & Mark Richardson
Preface by Alex Kerr
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