Taguchi is still prolific and continues to write fiction and non-fiction, essays, travel logs and a blog. But since 2016, she has also been trying to encourage the next generation of Japanese writers by regularly holding creative writing seminars in Tokyo. More than one hundred people have attended her classes to date.
The newly re-launched Creative Writing Programme consists of three sessions and is limited to twenty-five students per session. It is designed to: ‘Nurture a creative mind within yourself,’ and is being held at the art café in the heart of Omotesando for the first time, a district known for its creativity, galleries, and luxury shops.
Omotesando’s main selkova tree-lined street, close to the art café, is often compared to the Champs Elysees in Paris. Banana Yoshimoto, the award-winning author of Kitchen and many other novels, has on occasion joined the classes.
According to Taguchi, her classes will not only “help participants improve their writing skills, but also nurture their creativity benefiting other aspects of their lives”. Feedback and comments from previous seminars run by Taguchi show that they have been attended by people who have read her books or seen the film adaptations of them, as well individuals who follow her on Facebook or wish to develop new career opportunities through writing. Examples of comments include: “first and foremost, I was so happy to meet Randy Taguchi in person! This was something big in my life!” and “the class was very interesting because I not only learnt how to write, but how to live in a creative manner”.
More information on the Creative Writing Programme is available here.
About Red Circle:Red Circle Authors Limited is a specialist publishing and communications company that conducts bespoke projects on behalf of a carefully selected and curated group of leading Japanese authors. Red Circle showcases Japan’s best creative writing. For more information on Red Circle, Japanese literature, and Red Circle authors please visit: www.redcircleauthors.com.-
About Randy Taguchi:Randy Taguchi is Japan’s first major net-author who has transformed herself from an advertising executive into one of Japan’s leading novelists and essayists. She has an astute understanding of and interest in popular Japanese culture picking up on and writing about emerging cultural trends, fads and controversial issues that resonate with readers in print and online.
