Author: Emily Midorikawa

Article in Mslexia

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An article by Emma Claire Sweeney and me appears in the new issue of Mslexia. Its theme is rivalry between female author friends – a subject that we became interested in through our wider research into writing friendships.

We’d touched on issues of friction within writers’ relationships in the talk we gave at the NAWE conference last year and also in a piece we wrote for The Times. But we felt it was an issue that could be explored in more detail, which was why we approached Mslexia with our idea for the feature.

Although rivalry is often regarded as only a detrimental force within a friendship, Emma Claire and I know from our own relationship that the competition between us has been good for us as writers, and good for our friendship too – since it’s encouraged greater honesty between us.

We wanted to find out whether other authors felt the same way. As well as investigating the historical friendship between rivals Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf, we sought the opinions of several modern-day writers to get their views on the subject too.

Many thanks to Polly Coles, Amanda Craig, Jill Dawson, Louise Doughty, Liz Jensen and Madeline Miller for your insights.

Mslexia Issue 57 is out now.

Next year’s Mslexia Writer’s Diary

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The Mslexia diary I’d ordered arrived this week. As usual, in addition to all the calendar-related stuff you’d expect, it contains inspiring words by writers, a useful directory and summary of The Writing Year ahead, and plenty of blank pages for scribbling down ideas.

The diary’s theme in 2013 is collaboration and the Inspirations page for August focuses on the writing friendship between Emma Claire Sweeney and I, which we talked about in our feature in The Times back in May and also in our recent discussion panel at the NAWE conference.

Also mentioned in our Mslexia entry are Jill Dawson, Louise Doughty, Emily Pedder and Monique Roffey, who were amongst the writers we interviewed for the Times article.

NAWE conference talk: The Writing Friendship

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Having had such an enjoyable time at last year’s NAWE conference, I was really happy to take part in another panel discussion there this year. This time,  Emma Claire Sweeney and I  gave a presentation on the subject of friendships between writers along with two other “writing friends”, Emily Pedder and Monique Roffey.

Some people might remember that Emily and Monique were two of the writers we interviewed for our feature in The Times

Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney

back in May. Taking the newspaper article as a starting point, we used our session at the conference to ask Monique and Emily some questions inspired by what they’d told us the last time we met with them.

Emma and I were also able to delve a little further into the friendships of  some of the historical writers that our research for the article had centred on  – Brontë and Gaskell, Fitzgerald and Hemingway, Mansfield and Woolf to name but a few – as well as discussing practical tips with our audience of modern day writers for ways of sustaining a successful writing friendship through the good as well as the rockier times.

Having been friends with Emma for well over a decade now, I feel extremely lucky to have someone who’s been with me through my writing years. As we shared with the group at the conference, there have been ups and downs in the trajectories of our careers, disappointments as well as triumphs, but something I really do appreciate is that Emma’s been there for the whole of this period and that she’s still usually the first person I turn to if I have a difficult decision to make or a knotty plot problem that I’m struggling to untangle.

The Silent History

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It’s been a busy week, what with the SI Leeds Literary Prize award ceremony to go to in Ilkley and the start of my new OU course, so I’ve only just found a moment to blog about The Silent History, a new kind of novel written especially for iPad and iPhone, which launched this week.

The story is presented in two forms, Testimonials and Field Reports, and tells the story of a generation of unusual children, their families and the communities that surround them. I am the author of one of the first London field reports and I am really looking forward to visiting the site where it takes place and experiencing my writing as part of the novel as a whole.

The Silent History, available for download from the App Store, is a collaboration between Kevin Moffett (author of Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events and Permanent Visitors), Matthew Derby (author of Super Flat Times), Russell Quinn (co-founder of digital studio Spoiled Milk), Eli Horowitz (former managing editor and publisher of McSweeney’s), and contributors on five continents.

I’m very glad to be a part of this great new project, and I look forward to seeing how it develops.

SI Leeds Literary Prize award evening

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I’ve just returned home after a lovely twenty-four hours when I travelled down by train to the Ilkley Literature Festival with my good friend Sarah. I’ve known Sarah for years and having her there to accompany me to the inaugural SI Leeds Literary Prize award evening helped make the experience even more special.

Bonnie Greer and Margaret Busby opened the evening at the Ilkey Playhouse with a fascinating talk about their own personal histories as writers and some reflections on the publishing world of today and the spaces that Black and Asian writers occupy within it.

Then the prizes were announced, with Minoli Salgado being awarded the winner’s trophy, followed by Karen Onojaife in second place, and Jane Steele and I in joint third.

A high point of the evening for me was being able to hear the other winning writers reading their work aloud. I hope to hear lots more from them and the other shortlisted writers, Katy Massey and Anita Sivakumaran, in the future.

Short-listed for SI Leeds Literary Prize

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An update on the SI Leeds Literary Prize: I found out yesterday that my novel A Tiny Speck of Black and then Nothing has now made the short-list of six! I’m really looking forward to the award ceremony on 3 October at the Ilkley Literature Festival, and to meeting the other finalists, organisers and judges.

If you want to know more, further information can be found in the blog post below and also on the prize website.

Many thanks to everyone who has been in touch – your support is very much appreciated.

Long-listed for SI Leeds Literary Prize

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Although I had an idea that an announcement would be coming up, the phone call from Soroptimist International took me completely by surprise. I was delighted to learn that my novel A Tiny Speck of Black and then Nothing had made it into the final twelve manuscripts for the 2012 SI Leeds Prize.

The prize is a new award for unpublished fiction by Black and Asian women resident in the UK, and an initiative of Soroptimist International of Leeds working in partnership with Ilkley Literature Festival and Peepal Tree Press.

I’m so pleased to have been selected along with the other eleven writers, and I look forward to seeing who goes through to the shortlist.

A Tiny Speck of Black and then Nothing, set in the Japanese city of Ōsaka, draws on my experience of living and working in that country, as well as my own mixed heritage. The stories my late mother used to tell me have been a particular inspiration. If you are interested, you can find out more about my novel by visiting the Writing page of this website.

Literary Death Match pugilist

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I had an amazing time last night taking part in Literary Death Match, London, Episode 27. I was there representing Untitled Books, who recently published the short story from which I read an extract. It was a real pleasure to share the stage with Polly Courtney, Jonathan Lee and Benjamin Wood, who all read fantastic pieces.

The evening’s finale between the literary round winners (Jonathan and me) was a bizarre game of anagrams that involved moving around card-clutching volunteers from the audience so that they spelled out the names of famous authors. Jonathan – clearly much better at puzzles than me – was a deserving winner. I was happy to finish as runner-up.

I enjoyed meeting all of the night’s readers as well as the judges, Dr Brown, Rich Fulcher and Katy Guest, and the fantastic Literary Death Match team.

Short story in Untitled Books

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I’ve been a big fan of Untitled Books ever since the website started, so I’m really happy that my short story “The Picture of Mrs Brewster” appears in Issue 45 this month.

As usual, their June edition features fascinating articles about books and writing, interviews with writers, and short fiction from new and established authors.

Many thanks to Jack Blanchard, Sarah Butler, Ariella Feiner, Emma Claire Sweeney and Wayne Milstead for your encouragement and helpful feedback on early drafts of this piece.