On Saturday, June 22nd, WiK held the official launch party for the 3rd Writers in Kyoto Anthology, called Encounters With Kyoto. About half of WiK’s members came all the way to Umekoji Park’s Midori Building, where Jann Williams had set up a room full of food, drinks, and books, of course.
After everybody got a cup of sake, the first half of the launch party began with John Dougill’s reminiscences of starting the Writers in Kyoto group in 2015. He also presented all three Anthologies, from the first one that was collated copied pages to the current one which is available on amazon (click here).
We continued with readings of contributors, headed by Jann Williams, chief editor of the current Anthology. Readings by Ken Rodgers, Mayumi Kawaharada and Marianne Kimura followed. Afterwards, there was a break for our members to mingle and enjoy more sake, international snacks and conversations ranging from the serious to the light-hearted.
The second half of the party began with a speech in honor of Juliet Winters Carpenter, who, after 44 years in Japan, will move back to the US in the near future. As a parting gift, John Dougill presented her with a copy of the third Anthology, signed by all members who were present. Then there was an introduction by Mark Richardson of his latest book “The Wings of Atalanta, followed by a reading about a dramatic moment in US race relations.
There were more readings from our book, this time by Fernando, Iris, Mike and Karen, and in the end, Juliet talked about how she came to Japan in the first place, why Kyoto is really the best city in the world, and what her latest endeavours were.
After some more sake, sweets and general mingling, the official book launch party was closed. However, in true Japanese style, some members made their way to a private “nijikai” (second party).
If you could not join the party, you can experience the works of our members collected in our third Anthology called “Encounters With Kyoto”, which is available in print on amazon in Japan, the US and the UK (ebook may be coming soon).
