Speaker: Suzanne Kamata
Date: Sunday 11th September 2011
Time: 1-3 p.m.
Fee: 1,000 yen SWET and JAT members; 1,500 yen non-members
Place: Room 301, Hyogoken Shigaku Kaikan, Motomachi, Kobe Map
神戸市中央区北長狭通4丁目3-13 (2-minutes north of JR/Hanshin Motomachi Stns, 7 mins from Hankyu Sannomiya Stn)
Reservations: SWET Kansai

Suzanne Kamata will talk about writing, editing, and publishing short stories using her own experience as the writer of over forty short stories published in prestigious literary journals and magazines; the editor of two anthologies including short fiction and fiction editor of the well-respected online journal literarymama.com; and as the publisher of the Japan-based literary journal Yomimono. She'll discuss how she comes up with ideas for her own short stories - and suggest how aspiring writers might come up with their own - how she selects markets for her work, and how she found (and lost and found again) a traditional publisher for her short story collection. She'll also address the pros and cons of self-publishing, e-publishing vs. print publishing, marketing techniques, and any other questions attendees might have about short story writing/publishing. Books will be available for purchase.

Suzanne Kamata has lived in Shikoku for over 20 years. She is the author of the novel Losing Kei (Leapfrog Press, 2008), and editor of the anthologies The Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan (Stone Bridge Press, 1997), Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs (Beacon Press, May 2008) and the award-winning Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering (Wyatt-Mackenzie Publishing, 2009). Her latest book, The Beautiful One Has Come: Stories was published in July by Wyatt-Mackenzie Publishing.  She has published over 40 short stories. She is a two-time winner of the ANA/Wingspan Fiction Contest and her short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three times. Her story "Driving" was selected by Ntozake Shange for inclusion in The Beacon Best anthology, and her novella "Pilgrimage" received the SCBWI Magazine Merit Award for Fiction.