| Three American writers, presently in Japan on the US-Japan Creative Artists’ Program, will read from their works. Although each writer maintains a distinct style and voice, they are united in their sense of Japan as a destination which provides inspiration and background for their upcoming works. |
| Novelist Shay Youngblood is presently in Japan working on a new novel, Add Architecture, Stir Memory, the central theme of which concerns the destruction and construction of memory through architecture. For the forum, she will read excerpts from her acclaimed novel, Black Girl in Paris. |
 |
| Novelist Greg Hrbek’s first novel, The Hindenburg Crashes Nightly, is a complex story of obsessive, lifelong love. He is in Japan to research his current novel about Japanese colonists living in Micronesia during World War II and will read from a personal essay describing his recent journey to the Ogasawara Islands, where he visited as part of his research. |
 |
| Poet Brian Turner is a former sergeant in the US Army whose work deals mostly about the aftermath of the Iraq war. Born into a family of soldiers, Brian traveled to Japan to bear witness, through poetry, to the history of war shared by the US and Japan and foster a deeper understanding of how nations can move forward from tragedy to prosperity. He will read selections from both his older and newer poetry. |
 |