The Making of Creative Writers in Contemporary Japan: Prizes, Publications, Programs 

 

While creative writing courses have existed in Japan for many years, primarily as part of the undergraduate curriculum at universities and as individual courses offered by other private institutions, postgraduate programs in creative writing and literary agents are still a rarity, and the system for entry into the contemporary Japanese literary field has largely centered around literary magazines and the prizes associated with them. In this presentation we will provide a brief overview of the contemporary Japanese literary field, examine the ways in which these various prizes, publications and programs have functioned to date in identifying and nurturing new writers, and explore how the roles of these various mechanisms may be changing. Drawing on a number of specific cases, we will also illustrate how some of these writers then come to be recognized as ‘Japanese writers’ within the international sphere through a similar combination of prizes, publications and programs.