Table of Contents

Really exciting….the TOC is finalised.  Everyone who submitted did really well, and I loved reading through everything.

On The Brink Of Being A Great Success by Katy McAulay
March 14th 2011 by Annika Firmenich
Leviathan by Stuart Wilson
Haiku by Agata Maslowska
The Unbeaten Track by Andrea Mullaney
Peach Cigarettes in Tokyo by Kirsty Logan
Still Life by Emma Briant
Sakura Season by Lorna Callery
Jizo by Paul McDonagh
Snow Melts by Helen Sedgwick
Aokigahara by Eamonn Bolger
Ohayō Gozaimasu by JL Williams
Mum Fūsui by Cara McGuigan
Make Up, Sake and Firemen by Deborah Andrew
the dance of the year by John Brewster
A Glasgow Haiku by Kate Hendry
Hikikomori by Alex Cox
Saigō and the Spider by Iain Paton
Sinkhole by Iain Maloney
Bushido by Gar Hunter
Lost for Words by Paul Marsh
The Watchers by Nick Boreham
A Thousand Cranes by Fleur Capocci
Wedding Poem by Vivien Jones
Kimono by Lynsey May
The Lovebirds by J David Simons
Morning Haiku by Kathrine Sowerby
Hokusai’s ‘Great Wave off Kanagawa’ by Jim Stewart
From Out Waste Places Comes A Cry by Norman Bissett
Matsu by Paul McQuade
Building Edo by Michele Waering
The Positives by Steven Fraser
Haiku for Japan by various writers including the Open University
Bellflowers by Raymond Soltysek
A Year In A Kimono by Sam Porter
Nothing like a Real Smile by Ewan Gault
When I was a Ninja Turtle by Alan Gillespie
The Crane by Marise Morse
The Looking Glass and I by Layla Blackwell
Gion-no Ki by Sam Porter
A Letter of Mutual Understanding by Jackie Copleton
Late Night Searching of ‘2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami ’ on Wikipedia by Mark Russell
Arashi by Nicola Robson
The Emperor’s Crows by Fiona Thackeray

A few submissions weren’t quite in line with the theme, as it has evolved, and we had to reluctantly put aside some multiple submissions as well.

We’re looking at somewhere between 160 to 200 pages in total.

Anthology now complete

Here is the news! The Writers for Japan anthology will be published by Cargo Publishing, with a target date of 24 June. Cargo are a wonderful cutting-edge publisher and it is great to be their partner in this venture. There will also be a promotional reception courtesy of the Japanese Consulate and a formal launch in Glasgow. All funds will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross via the Consulate in Edinburgh.  More to come…

Further Update

This has been exciting week for our fledgling charity anthology, which seems to be growing daily into something very real and worthwhile.

We now have submissions from 24 talented and fantastic writers, which is an overwhelming amount to receive in such a short space of time. There is a wonderful variety of prose and poetry within this selection, and we’re delighted to be in possession of some brilliant pieces.

We have also had interesting and helpful meetings with two publishing houses, and there is a lot to consider, we but hope soon to be able to make an announcement regarding this. Ideally we will ensure the anthology is available for sale in paperback sometime in the summer in order to start generating funds for charity.

If you haven’t yet sent us in work, don’t worry! There’s still time! We’ll be accepting submissions right up until April 17th, so if you want to be involved please email us before then (and familiarise yourself with our submission guidelines).

Email your work to writersglasgowjapan@yahoo.co.uk in a .doc or .rtf attachment.

Remember, you don’t have to wait for the book to come out to contribute to the relief fund; the Red Cross are taking donations online now.

Update 30 March

• We now have over 40 pages with more material coming in
• The Japanese Consulate in Edinburgh has been contacted
• Closing date for submissions 17 April
• We are in very positive discussions with publishers, and a print version is intended
• Probably late May or early June launch
• Joint Editors are Alex Cox,  Alan Gillespie, Iain Paton. If anyone else wants to join in, please get in touch…
• This blog may be revamped over the next week or two…

The lineup so far

This is what we have in cold hard print…

On The Brink Of Being A Great Success by Katy McAulay
Haikus by Betty Porrelli and Iain Paton
Jizo by Paul McDonagh
Aokigahara by Eamonn Bolger
Mum Feng Shui by Cara McGuigan
IN by Alex Cox
The Watchers by Nick Boreham
The Samurai and the Spider by Iain Paton
Sinkhole by Iain Maloney
Snow Melts by Helen Sedgwick
Lost for Words by Paul Marsh

More submissions offered by Layla Blackwell, John Brewster, Alan Gillespie, Gar Hunter, Emma Irvine, Kirsty Logan, Raymond Soltysek…plus some memories of Iwate

This may well stretch beyond Glasgow…in fact, it is already reaching to the East Neuk of Fife! It’s looking like 64 pages.

Glasgow Writers for Japan

Cherry leaves shaken
Blossoms scattered on the sea
But the tree stands strong

This has been set up to promote a charitable booklet for the benefit of the people of northern Japan affected by the catastrophic tsunami of March 2011.

It is intended to produce a booklet of Japanese themed stories, fiction, factual accounts and poetry. This will be sold to raise reconstruction funds, initially as an ebook. Some links to Japanese inspirations will also be provided on this blog. Brief notes of any Japanese connections would also be welcomed, to include on this blog.

There is no launch date yet. This project is envisaged to take a couple of months and will be as big as it can grow to. Donations will be via Paypal in due course and linked to an appropriate donor agency. Further news will follow.

In the meantime, please send submissions to:

writersglasgowjapan [at] yahoo.co.uk
with ‘submissions’ in the subject box.

Terms and conditions will be published shortly, but it is intended that such material shall be given freely for the charitable purpose of this booklet, with due accreditation and retention of copyright on the part of the author.

General correspondence should also be sent to this email address glasgowwritersjapan [at] yahoo.co.uk

Please do not solicit for donations; internet fraud is a sad modern phenomenon and we will approach beneficiaries directly and publish full details in due course. Likewise, we are not in a position to accept monetary donations until these details have been established. The British Red Cross has a website for making donations.