Meredith McKinney -Travels with a Writing Brush

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Join us on Wednesday November 27th at 6pm to hear Meredith McKinney talk about her most recent book Travels with a Writing Brush. Classical Japanese Travel Writing from the Manyoshu to Basho

When you pick up Travels with a Writing Brush you will discover a realm of travel writing undreamed of in the West - a richly literary tradition extending through a thousand years and more, whose individual works together weave a dense and beautiful brocade of repeated patterns and motifs, tones and textures. Here are asobi, the wandering performers who prefigured geisha; travelling monks who sleep on pillows of grass and listen to the autumnal insects; and a young girl who passionately longs to travel to the capital and read more stories. Taking in songs, dramas, tales, diaries and above all, poetry, this wonderful anthology roams over mountains and along perilous shores to show how profoundly travel inspired the Japanese imagination.

Meredith McKinney is an award-winning translator of classical and modern Japanese literature, whose translations include Sei Shônagon’s eleventh-century classic The Pillow Book, and Kokoro and Kusamakura by the early modern novelist Natsume Sôseki.

After living and teaching for around 20 years in Japan, she returned to Australia in 1998 and now lives near Braidwood. She is currently an honorary associate professor at the Japan Centre, Australian National University.

Meredith McKinney's translations are justifiably widely admired and she speaks with such knowledge and insight that anyone who can join us on the evening of Wednesday November 27th is in for a treat!