Eli K.P. William
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elikpwilliam.com
Eli K.P. William
@elikpwilliam.com
Sci-fi novelist | Translator of Japanese literature | Bilingual game writing consultant | Essayist | Resident of Japan | SFWA and SFWJ member | Father of a curious young soul | Believer in our potential to change

elikpwilliam.com
elikpwilliam.substack.com
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At last! My translation of Michio Hoshino's The Traveling Tree is out today in the UK! I’ve been dying to translate this beautiful book for more than 15 years.

Read my thoughts on translating it:
substack.com/home/post/p-...

Or purchase a copy:
www.amazon.co.uk/Travelling-T...

#japaneseliterature
bicycle shelter disassembled and front lawn raked.
T minus five days until the move.

#moving
January 28, 2026 at 8:17 AM
books from the DIY shelf in my writing room packed. T minus six days until the move.

#moving
January 27, 2026 at 10:41 AM
Canada's prime minster calls out the "rules-based international order" for what it now is:

"a system of intensifying great power rivalry where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as a weapon of coercion."

www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

#geopolitical #rupture
Read Mark Carney's full speech on middle powers navigating a rapidly changing world | CBC News
Read the full text of Prime Minister Mark Carney's speech about a shakeup of the global order and role of middle powers at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
www.cbc.ca
January 22, 2026 at 12:37 PM
could there be an economic bubble that just never ever bursts because the market players are so fanatically committed to creating a god-like being that they just keep investing and investing and investing in the face of all evidence that divinity is not a toy of humankind

#eternal #AI #bubble
January 20, 2026 at 12:09 PM
financial advice so typical it's cliche is "invest in S&P500 ETFs". This assumes that the USA will keep growing as it has for over a century. Indeed, the stock market always seems to bounce back from every crisis. But can this dynamism be taken for granted no matter what?

#finance #market #USA
January 18, 2026 at 1:43 AM
my beginner's Chinese textbook just arrived. I'm starting with almost zero knowledge of the language (though knowing Japanese writing and English grammar is bound to help.)

#beginner #chinese #mandarin #language #study
January 16, 2026 at 9:34 AM
Reposted by Eli K.P. William
January 9, 2026 at 1:28 PM
I learned to read Japanese by working through Haruki Murakami's novels in order of publication, then took a break from him for many years. Now I'm returning to his work and have acquired all 14 of his short story collections, which I hope to read chronologically as well.

#murakami #harukimurakami
January 10, 2026 at 4:42 AM
Here's the English original in case you haven't read the article yet:

www.nippon.com/en/japan-top...

#japanese #scifi #speculativefiction #fantasy #SF #history
January 5, 2026 at 4:29 AM
I’m writing the first draft of a brand new short story in the Japanese language. Wish me luck in crafting something powerful and convincing someone to publish it.

#exophonic #writing
#secondlanguage #japanese #shortstory
January 3, 2026 at 2:55 AM
a visual metaphor for global humanity, all of us swirling together, evanescent, effervescent, unique and yet similar, agglomerating in our separateness, searching for a better way to expire

#earthly #humankind
#ephemeral #species
#thrown #aswirl
January 2, 2026 at 11:12 AM
greeting the new year Zen style, to the ringing of the midnight bell and the mystic throb of the Heart Sutra.

#zen #newyear #ceremony #kamakura #enkakuji #heartsutra
#鎌倉 #円覚寺 #除夜の鐘 #般若心経
December 31, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Shadow Taker. A town I passed through yesterday. Hard to come up with a more enigmatic place name, or one that better suits the place, a no man's land at the corner of three different cities.

#liminal #suburb #nomansland
#nether #region #shonan
December 30, 2025 at 8:50 AM
I've hit upon a great hack in Mac OS for turning any digital document into a PDF with copiable text. Take screenshots of as many pages as you like, select all the resulting files, right click, and choose the quick action to assemble PDF.

#research #efficiency #hack
December 28, 2025 at 2:58 AM
fending my way through the Kabukicho swarms on my way to a year end party. Here the sleaze of yesteryear is giving way to hollow tourist glitz. Do you want safety or soul? You can’t have both.

#kabukuicho #tokyo
December 27, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Having a conductor shout ALL ABOARD before a train departs is a tradition I believe is worth restoring and protecting. Together we can make it mandatory at all platforms everywhere. Vote William in 2026 wherever elections are held.

#electionplatform = #trainplatform #tradition
#ALLABOARD
December 27, 2025 at 8:53 AM
My introduction to Japan was taking an intensive Japanese course at ICU in Mitaka one summer, so walking the wooded paths of the campus to give a talk on world building last month brought back so many memories.

#ICU #Mitaka #Tokyo
#Japanese #study #summerabroad
#wistful #nostalgic #memories
December 27, 2025 at 12:59 AM
went to the open house for a new tourist accommodation in my neighbourhood. The owner has converted a kominka into short term lodgings. The rooms seemed spartan and overpriced, but the zen garden and the view were nice.

#openhouse #inn #kominka #shonan #zengarden #view
#japan #tourism #boom
December 26, 2025 at 10:25 AM
my new year's resolution for 2026 is to start learning Mandarin.

#newyearsresolution #newyear2026 #studychinese #language
December 26, 2025 at 2:40 AM
To start with a fresh list of media in 2026, I aim to finish off the following works by the end of the year:

The Origins of Political Order by Francis Fukuyama (audiobook)
Question Authority by Mark Kingwell (book)
Disco Elysium (game)
The Maxx (comic)

#endofyear #cleaninghouse #freshstart
December 25, 2025 at 2:18 AM
picked up a copy of this antique 1929 manga by author and artist Nio Mizushima. I'll translate the title for now as Country Bumpkinski in the Big City. It's a comedy, including one section that features a rather silly robopocalypse

#antique #manga #early #showa
#scifi #robot #robopocalypse #comedy
December 23, 2025 at 6:23 AM