Write Now With Karen Hill Anton

Today’s Write Now interview features Karen Hill Anton, author and newspaper columnist living in Japan.

Who are you?

My name is Karen Hill Anton. I am a columnist, memoirist, and novelist. I’m married to Billy Anton, my best friend since we were teenagers. We have four children and eleven grandchildren. I’m originally from New York City. My home, since 1975, is in rural Shizuoka province, Japan.

What do you write?

I began writing in 1978 when my first article was published as a Sunday feature in the Japan Times — Japan’s oldest and largest English-language newspaper. I later wrote a regular column for the paper titled “Crossing Cultures.” Many readers commented the column gave them a glimpse of the “real Japan” as I wrote about rural community life. Beginning in 1983, I was invited to write a regular column for a regional edition of the national newspaper Chunichi Shimbun. Titled “Another Look” that column addressed an exclusively Japanese audience, giving them ‘another look’ at their society from the perspective of an American woman. That perspective included my participation in Japanese society from the PTA to serving as a member of a Prime Minister’s committee focused on international education.

The popularity of both columns has been immensely gratifying, giving me an opportunity to share my ideas and opinions with a large, global, and appreciative audience. Having established that readership, it contributed to the wide and warm reception of my memoir and novel.

The View From Breast Pocket Mountain, my memoir, essentially tells the story how a girl from uptown New York City came to settle and create a home in the tea-growing region of Japan. My novel, A Thousand Graces, a story in which all the characters except one is Japanese, had been with me a long time — I started writing it in 1992. Rereading the manuscript, I thought it was a pity I’d abandoned the characters, so I committed to finish telling their story. It was published in 2023.

Where do you write?

I write in my study, a room I designed. It has my decades-in-the-making library, a custom-built desk on which sits an iMac. My room looks out over a trellis of wisteria, trees, flowers, and bushes that attract a variety of birds to distract me. My house is high on a hill providing a vista that extends to the horizon of the Pacific Ocean.

I often write down my first thoughts by hand in notebooks. My favorite writing tool is a fountain pen. I recently bequeathed my 60-year-old Montblanc Meisterstück to my eldest daughter. Still, I have several excellent made-in-Japan Pilot pens I regularly write with.

When do you write?

I write during daytime hours. Typically, after a morning swim in our local pool, and after breakfast, I settle in at my desk by 11 o’clock and write until about four or five o’lock. The only deadlines I have now are the ones I set for myself. I am highly disciplined, thrive on routine, and at the end of the day I’m generally satisfied with what I’ve produced, always prepared to work on a draft the following day. I’ve never written one word at night.

Why do you write?

I see writing as a way of thinking. And it’s a way to reach and communicate with people I might not otherwise encounter. I love the experience of working to put my thoughts in writing, controlling the pace with commas and paragraphs, crafting chapter beginnings and endings, finding not just the right word, but that one word that represents exactly what it is I want to say. I often remind myself of John Gardner’s statement: “The truth of what you say is what really matters, and the only importance of technique is that when you say it badly you haven’t said it.”

How do you overcome writer’s block?

While I accept there is such a thing as “writer’s block”, I’ve never had it. When I do not feel like writing, I don’t do it. There are so many other things that I do, that give me joy and motivate me, I can easily choose among those other things. I don’t have angst over writing. When the writing isn’t happening, I do something else. I knit socks.

Bonus: What do you enjoy doing when not writing?

Principal among the things I enjoy is spending time with my family and friends. Whether it’s over a meal at home, in a cafe, or taking a walk in the park, those times are the best times.

I’ve achieved second-degree mastery in Japanese calligraphy, a discipline I’ve practiced for 40 years. I turned one of my children’s rooms into my calligraphy studio, and that’s where I go to immerse myself in one of the oldest forms of writing, with a brush.

I am a devoted student of Hula and I’m thankful to have a wonderful teacher and great classmates near my home. I particularly love the Hula of Kumu Mark Keali’i Ho’omalu, and sometimes watch his videos to dance along with his troupe. I love to dance. It’s what I can always count on to feel good and loosen up. My husband Billy plays dance music while we clean up after dinner, and if you come into our kitchen you’ll find us moving to the reggae sounds of Third World, Midnite, Buju Banton, and of course Bob Marley. Marvin Gaye and The Isley Brothers always get me moving, too.

My weekday mornings begin with a swim. It clears my head, and sets up my day for writing — or anything else I want to do.

My thanks to Karen Hill Anton for today’s interview.

Write Now With Karen Hill Anton was originally published in The Writing Cooperative on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.