Lucy Caldwell Talk Event

   Okayama City held the Lucy Caldwell Talk Event on August 13th, 2024 at OUX of Okayama University.

   This was the first event to invite a foreign author after Okayama was designated as a member of UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the field of Literature.

   The Okayama Irish Music Fans' Society gave a welcome performance at the beginning of the event.

   Lucy Caldwell, a novelist and playwright, introduced herself and gave a presentation about her connection with Japan. She said that when she was a child, she had a cassette tape set of storytelling and picture books at home, and one of the picture books, a Japanese folktale called “Goblin Rat,” left a strong impression on her and she remembers it well to this day. She also introduced her strong connection to Japan, saying that she had learned violin in the “Yoshida Method” from her childhood.

　During the talk event, Associate Professor Brian Fox of Okayama University's Faculty of Letters served as a listener and asked Lucy questions about how she creates her stories.

　She said, “I used to learn to play the violin, so rhythm is very important to me when I write stories.” “Once I write a story, I read it out loud and if I feel the rhythm is not right, I sometimes rewrite it.

　During the talk event, Lucy read from “All the People were Mean and Bad,” the only Japanese translation of her short story collection “Intimacies. The participants listened to the realistic reading.

　The event was an opportunity to consider literature and music from a variety of perspectives, including history, culture, and art.

　We would like to thank the Embassy of Ireland in Japan, Literature Ireland, Culture Ireland, and other organizations for their cooperation in inviting Lucy to Japan. Thank you very much.

　The venue of the event, Co-education and Co-creation Commons, is a new building completed in January 2023, and was a comfortable space with the scent of wood.