A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of speaking with Tony Vega about The Kimono Tattoo.  Tony runs the podcast JapanKyo, which features news clips from Japanese media in addition to stories about Japan.  Tony hopes his podcast will provide a trusted conduit of information on Japan for those who want to learn more but do not have access to Japanese news sources.

Tony asked really interesting questions that made me think about the way I crafted The Kimono Tattoo.  Writing the novel took such a long time (I started in 2012), that it’s easy to lose sight of early inspirations and motivations.  

Tony also asked me about my experiences teaching in the Prison Education Project, a program that provides incarcerated people in Missouri and prison staff access to a liberal arts education.  It was my privilege to teach “Japanese Civilization” at a nearby medium-security prison, and I very much enjoyed talking about it.

Have a listen:


Photo by C M on Unsplash

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