Ongoing & upcoming events

This is a tanka class for beginners — from people trying tanka for the first time to those who have tried composing a few poems. The instructor is Miyako Asai, a tanka poet who has received the Mahiru-no Prize. Please feel free to join us.

Covered streams, kappa, water-distribution towers and water-supply towers, roof deities — introducing the slightly unusual scenes and endearing things hidden in everyday life in and around Nagoya.

We will welcome Daiji Kawanaka, a reporter who has attracted attention as a journalist for the Japan Junior High School Newspaper, and hear his thoughts on citizens and politics.

An easy-to-understand talk on how Nagoya's yūkaku changed over time, including explanations of terminology. Lecturer: Tokai Pleasure-Quarter History Study Group

"The Bookstores of the Empire" — To commemorate winning the 38th Tetsuro Watsuji Cultural Award (General Category), Nagoya University will hold a talk and signing event with Professor Yoshitaka Hibi!

Host: Tete Co-host: NAgoyaBOOKCENTER Tete works in sales and is a book lover who reads about 200 books a year. She reads novels, essays, non-fiction, and whatever books catch her interest at the time. This reading group warmly welcomes book lovers, of course, as well as those who have just started reading but are unsure what to choose, or people who don't have fellow book lovers around to talk about books with. Would you like to have a relaxed chat about books? Please feel free to join us. ＊NAgoyaBOOKCENTER does not tolerate any form of discrimination or violent behavior/language＊

Hiroshi Tanaka, who has had a wide-ranging career at Bungeishunju—from a weekly magazine reporter to marketing—will investigate the current state of bookstores and discuss with participants the future of bookstores that emerges from that investigation.

This is a tanka gathering for those who want to start writing tanka or have just begun. Why not try composing tanka together? Please feel free to join us. The organizer is tanka poet Miyako Asai, who received the Mahiruno Prize. If you wish to participate, please compose one tanka and email it to [email protected] by July 1. Don't forget to include your name. Beginners are welcome to try composing in the 5-7-5-7-7 rhythm.

This is a talk and signing event with Kenji Kuroda, who will publish his new book 'Perfect Locked-Room Matryoshka: Mystery in the Mystery' with 星海社FICTIONS in June.\nHe will speak at length about his latest work and about Nagoya as a puzzle-solving city.

We will welcome Kumiko Shindo, the leading authority on Fusae Ichikawa studies who recently published 'A Biographical Study of Fusae Ichikawa', and ask her about what she wanted to convey to readers through her research on Fusae Ichikawa, the most prominent postwar politician to come from Aichi Prefecture. The interviewer will be journalist Keiko Yamamoto, a former NHK commentator.

This is the 4th Nagoya Ekinishi Literary Marche. The exhibitors this time are as follows (in no particular order): ハミング研究所 今夜はここで栞を 本の海める サラバ道徳 koboshiyasan 海月舎 静謐堂 名古屋SFアンソロジー That's all. The venue is NAgoyaBOOKCENTER, 2nd floor, Gallery N2.

Professor 野口武悟 (Aoyama Gakuin University, Library and Information Science), a leading researcher in reading accessibility, and 藤坂康司, a former library director and now bookstore staff who helped realize a library that's more than just a place to borrow books together with citizens and librarians, will have an in-depth conversation about the possibilities of libraries that can only be understood through practice and about the potential for books that reading accessibility brings.

Reading and writing are two sides of the same coin. Knowing the writer's perspective makes reading even more enjoyable. From what viewpoint does an editor read a work? Behind-the-scenes stories that are a must-listen even for those aiming for newcomer prizes. Instructor profile: Hisayuki Arai (新井久幸) Born in Tokyo in 1969 and raised in Chiba Prefecture. Graduated from the Faculty of Law at Kyoto University. While at university he belonged to the Detective Fiction Research Society (Kyoto University Mystery Club). He joined Shinchosha in 1993. After editing magazines and books, he served as editor-in-chief of the magazine "Shōsetsu Shincho" for six years from 2010. He is currently head of the publishing department. Major works he has handled include 『夜のピクニック』（恩田陸）、『重力ピエロ』（伊坂幸太郎）、『ボトルネック』（米澤穂信）、『向日葵の咲かない夏』（道尾秀介） and the anthology "Story Seller." Last year he edited 『失われた貌』（櫻田智也）, which won a triple crown in mystery rankings.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nishio-born poet Noriko Ibaraki. We will welcome Makoto Kumagai, principal of Anjo Gakuen High School, who has published "Poet Noriko Ibaraki: The Girl from Nishio" (Fubaisha), and hear him speak about the book. The interviewer will be Keiko Yamamoto, a former NHK commentator and journalist.

Noran Nijino, who made a striking major debut with 'Sono Humming wa 7' at KADOKAWA. Her new book, 'Akari no Tomoru Hello', which the author says is her favorite work, has been published by her local Nagoya publisher Sakurayama-sha. To commemorate the publication, we will hold an author talk and signing event. On the day there will be a reading by Tomoko Shio. Please look forward to it.

Isn't today's publishing world becoming a kind of “print macho”? Reading only in printed characters—difficult words and kanji—is not the only form of reading. By expanding ways of reading beyond the conventional frame of “reading”—comics, graphic works, audiobooks, etc.—we can lower the barriers to reading and increase readership. We will hold a talk and signing event to celebrate the publication of publishing journalist Kazufumi Iida's latest book, "An Introduction to 'Yuru Reading' for 90% of Japanese."