by Rebecca Copeland | Mar 11, 2026 | Japanese Literature
“Pick a topic you love,” my PhD advisor told me. “You’re going to be working on it for years.” At first, I bristled at the advice, thinking he meant I was likely to take a long time finishing my dissertation. Was I really that slow? Later I came to understand. The... 
by Rebecca Copeland | Dec 18, 2024 | Memories
I hadn’t expected him to order coffee. No one ever did. I’d been working the midday shift at Charlie Goodnights for a week by then. In fact, hardly anyone bothered to stop by the bar on Hillsborough Street before 7:00 pm. My shift ended at 8:00. Mostly I spent my time... 
by Rebecca Copeland | Jan 3, 2024 | Japanese Culture
How the “Truth”-Seeking Scholar Became the Story Meeting celebrated author Uno Chiyo on June 21, 1984 (which incidentally or ironically was my fourth wedding anniversary) was a thrill. The thrills didn’t stop with that meeting, though. Four months later, I was in... 
by Rebecca Copeland | Dec 7, 2022 | Memories
I often feel I could live anywhere. When I was seven my family spent a year in India, and I loved it. For college I relocated to the Sandhills of North Carolina. Only a two-hour drive from my home in Raleigh, still the landscape was different, with long-leaf pines,... 
by Rebecca Copeland | May 11, 2022 | Japanese Culture
The elevator ride to the ninth floor left me woozy. I was already nervous. What if he turned me down? “Enter,” he barked when I knocked on his office door. I pushed the door open just enough to squeeze through and met his gaze. His eyes, slightly...
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