More exciting than Christmas, and coming up next weekend, it’s the Japan Writers Conference.

The name of the event kind of gives the plot away, because this is when writers who live in or whose subject is Japan, come together and talk writing.

The event is in English and comprises two days of talks and workshops. Everyone will be congregating at Doshisha Women’s University, a beautiful campus surrounded by trees in Kyoto.

This is a remarkable event for the fact that the venue is provided by the host free of charge, the organisers are all volunteers, and neither the speakers nor attendees pay a penny.

You get to meet and hear some of the best known and most active of Japan’s writers.
Speakers include Vikas Swarup, Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, Holly Thompson, Hillel Wright, Suzanne Kamata, and the ubiquitous ‘others’, with topics ranging from poetry to kids books to feature writing to selling options on your novel to Hollywood to writing for EFL publications. (Yes, the last item looks lame placed like that at the end of the list, which is why I put it there. Naughty me.)

Vikas Swarup has spoken before at the JWC and I caught him in 2010 when he talked about how his novel Q&A was turned into Slumdog Millionaire, and he was a very engaging and amusing speaker, so I’ll be making a point of catching him again this year.
And, of course, the event is a chance to catch up with people you haven’t seen in yonks and grab a beer with them after the talks.
See you there.

Doshisha Women’s College Imadegawa Campus November 10th and 11th, 2012. It’s free!

For further info and directions: http://www.japanwritersconference.org/