Friday, March 31, 2006
Otafuku Encounters
Author of Otafuku: Joy of Japan (Tuttle, June 2005), Amy Katoh is known for her shop Blue & White, a fixture of Tokyo’s Azabu Juban area for more than 30 years, and three previous books. SWET pried into the profession and persona of one of Japan’' greatest champions of traditional crafts and culture.
Markuz Wernli Saitō on Book Design
A Swiss designer with a background in commercial and website design, Markuz Wernli Saitō was the photographer/designer of Stone Bridge Press’s Mirei Shigemori: Modernizing the Japanese Garden, a book based on the doctoral dissertation of author Christian Tschumi on the twentieth-century scholar and garden designer. On January 22, 2006 Wernli Saitō spoke about how the photographs were chosen and the design conceived and executed.
Peter Goodman, president of Stone Bridge Press, and long-time SWET stalwart, contributed Editorial Insights from his perspective as supervising editor of the project.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Kyoto Journal Inspired
SWET’s November 20 lecture featured founding editor John Einarsen and associate editor Stewart Wachs of Kyoto Journal, who made the trip to Tokyo for our final public event of the year. Sharing the podium from their different perspectives and showing a lively collection of slides of KJ covers and pages, they explained the secrets they hold to keeping an all-volunteer quarterly journal coming out for nearly 20 years.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
On Staying Published
Publishing a guidebook to Kyoto is a daunting undertaking, so seeing it on bookshelves eight years after publication is gratifying. What is involved in staying in print and in maintaining a relationship with a publisher that is taken over by other presses along the way? Judith Clancy talks with SWET about the process and the rewards of remaining a published author.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Notes from a Garret
You don’t have to pay half your salary in rent or brave commuter crowds every day to pursue a successful writing or translating career in Japan. From his “garret” looking out on the waters of Ishikari Bay in Hokkaido, Michael Hoffman contributes articles regularly to two of Japan’s English-language dailies, translates, and, most recently, writes fiction. How did he get there?
Addendum, 2007: In this 2004 article, Michael Hoffman revealed that his “computer-phobia” hadn’t helped his garret-based writing career as of 2004. Suggesting that he had “that more or less under control,” he may not have dreamed of having his own blog within three years. His latest book is Nectar Fragments AuthorHouse, 2006).