Encounters with Kyoto: Writers in Kyoto Anthology 3 Edited by Jann Williams; Ian Josh Yates ISBN: 978-1-0992-7643-9 Writers in Kyoto, 2019 Softback, 135 pp Generally speaking, this anthology of prose, poetry and excellent black-and-white photography defies the almost inevitable unevenness in form and substance that besets such collections to achieve a fresh look at a well-traversed city. There is something for everyone – travelogues, memoirs, portraits, pastiches, poem sequences, short stories – and thus nothing that really consolidates the anthology. Ultimately this energetic, scattershot miscellany supports John Dougill’s assertion that Kyoto is a “city … that’s hard to put into words”. I suspect the collection will make more sense to those who know Kyoto already than those who are new to it. And perhaps that is the point – it and its previous iterations are a loving tribute rather than a primer. It begins strongly, with veteran writers Juliet Winters Carpenter’s and Alex Kerr’s affectionate yet clear-eyed takes on Kyoto as it was and is. Some subsequent pieces are hampered by slapdash editing, which emphasises the disparity of approach, tone and substance. Indeed, the two editors’ pieces themselves could hardly be more different, one dense and scholarly, the other impressionistic and intimate. […]
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