September 27, 2019 By Kiri Falls / Japan News Staff Writer

Japan may seem an unlikely place for English-language novelists, poets and essayists to ply their trade, but if the annual Japan Writers Conference is any indicator, there is no shortage of opportunities for writers based here to find a niche.

This year’s conference — which will take place Oct. 12-13 in Tokyo — offers as much variety as ever, with presentations from writers, translators and editors with a broad range of experience.

Sessions include everything from writing about disability in children’s books, to using surrealist strategies to generate poems, and the pros and cons of the global online event National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Poetry, mystery, flash fiction, historical fiction, science writing and memoir are just some of the genres touched on during the two-day event.

Co-organizer John Gribble emphasizes that it is not a “literary” conference, but one focused on the practical processes of writing and publishing.

“It has a DIY aspect,” he told The Japan News recently. “The question we ask of all potential presentations is: If someone is interested in writing, editing, publishing or translating, can they learn something?”

There will certainly be plenty of chances to learn, whether it’s in sessions that offer practical advice on publishing and building a writing career or those that get into the nuts and bolts of writing — dissecting plots, naming characters, writing sex scenes.

Less conventional presentations are crossing genre boundaries — such as one on how photo editing skills can help writers. Writer Sara Ellis is taking a novel approach, looking at how comic book layouts can give prose writers helpful clues for writing scenes.

“The JWC provides a bridge between the academic and creative. You’re allowed to get your weird on and be taken seriously at the same time,” Ellis told The Japan News by email.

There will be several firsts at this year’s event, such as a science writing workshop from RIKEN science communicator Amanda Alvarez and JAXA astrophysicist Elizabeth Tasker. Alvarez is also an organizer of the monthly event Nerd Nite Tokyo, which the Japan Writers Conference will collaborate with on its October event.

Another new addition is a two-part workshop for which participants had to submit a full novel draft in advance. Session leaders Holly Thompson and Mariko Nagai hope that by providing a deadline for people already working on a young adult or middle-grade novel and having them receive feedback in advance, the workshop will create a community and enable better revising.

“Writing groups often only have time to workshop one chapter or scene at a time … This program offers participants face-to-face workshop sessions to process the feedback, ask questions of the entire group, read revised work, and set the next round of revisions in motion,” Thompson said in an email to The Japan News.

The conference is free and no pre-registration is required — anyone can turn up on the day. This is part of the conference’s “egalitarian” nature, Gribble said, pointing out that a lot of people have writing responsibilities in their everyday jobs, even if they don’t think of themselves as writers.

Now in its 13th year, the conference had its highest-ever attendance at last year’s event in Otaru, Hokkaido. “There are a lot of fresh faces among the presenters this year,” Gribble said. It would seem Japan is still a good place for writers.

For more information visit: japanwritersconference.org