So Thursday night was a busy one for me. At 7pm I gave a lecture/reading about me/my work as part of Lakeland University Japan’s ongoing series. It’s a great scheme they’ve got going, bringing in people of all different walks of life to talk to their students and the wider public and I was delighted to be invited.
I did a kind of overview of my writing to date, including readings from The Only Gaijin in the Village and my new book, Life is Elsewhere/Burn Your Flags (pre-order here). It was a nice change because I never get to do that kind of thing – events are usually supporting a specific book and since I’ve been with a few publishers I tend to avoid cross-promoting.
After a short break, I was back online, this time to talk to the BBC. With my critic’s cap on, I joined writer Emily Itami to chat about Japanese literature on Radio 4’s Open Book. This was a huge deal for me, since I’ve listened to Radio 4 since I was a teenager. So much so that I honestly cannot remember my first couple of answers as my brain was just going RADIO 4!!!!!!! The host, Johny Pitt, was incredibly nice and the whole experience was a joy. God know how much of my noise made it into the final episode but we can all find out on Sunday afternoon, 4pm UK time, and thereafter on Sounds.
Iain Maloney 