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I will be doing a talk at Ushaw Historic House in north east England tomorrow, about our Lafcadio Hearn related books. The building is where Hearn went to school in 1863. They contacted me saying 'you wont know us, but...' and i replied saying 'I DO know your place, AND the school is already mentioned in one of my books!' hehe...  
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 Another interview about our comic book regarding the struggle of the Kurdish people to make a democratic society: "As to Abdullah Öcalan, there are two things that are widely known: his personal pain, his personal struggle, but perhaps more importantly, the fact that he did not turn this democratic cause into a dictatorship or an oppressive structure, as many people have done throughout history. This is extremely important. This is true of the Communards in the 19th century, the Spanish in the 20th century, or the Kurdish people today. In trying to establish a truly democratic system, it must not turn into a dictatorship. And Öcalan seems to understand this and wants it to remain democratic. This is an important message to the world." (with me looking somewhat tired and dishevelled because the lovely Kurdish people had just been whirling me round on the dance floor after our book launch event there, teaching me how to do their traditional dancing. Nice!). https://anfenglish.com/culture/award-winning-author-wilson-abdullah-Ocalan-s-leadership-sends-important-messages-to-the-world-75830 Back from the bonny old UK where our book events went very well. Nice to do a lecture in Cambridge University and continue the discussions in one of its famous pubs by the river with some very smart folk. But this one in the Kurdish Community Center was the best. The Kurdish people were amazingly warm and welcoming to me. More than just about any group of people I have ever met anywhere in the world. "As part of the global Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan Days, a promotion meeting was held in London presenting the graphic novel ‘Freedom Shall Prevail: The Struggle of Abdullah Öcalan and the Kurdish People’. The promotion meeting organised by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Kurdish People's Assembly in Britain and the Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan Movement Committee at the Kurdish Community Centre (KCC)..." https://anfenglishmobile.com/news/-75641  I’m happy to be a guest at this year’s Philippine International Comics Festival (PICOF), in Manila. It’s my first time in the Philippines. On July 20th and July 21st, I will be doing a book signing at 4pm on Sunday 21st. Nice!   Off to Paris soon! Myself and Japanese artist, Inko Ai Takita, will go to Paris give a presentation at the Guimet Museum, in the afternoon on February 24th. The evening before that we will do a talk and book signing in the publisher's own book shop, from 6pm Feb 23rd. Both are about our manga version of the classic The Tale of Genji. The museum event is part of a big exhibition all about the Tale of Genji, with a lot of interesting related objects and events. Our event will also include the Japanese artist Harumo Sanazaki, the French ‘raguko’ performer Cyril Coppini, and our French publisher, Benoit Labayle. Anyone in the area is welcome to come: "Roman fondateur pour la culture japonaise, "Le Dit du Genji" continue d'inspirer des expressions artistiques contemporaines, comme les mangas, qui en réinterprètent les codes et les thèmes. Le plus célèbre est sans doute Asaki yume mishi de Waki Yamato (né en 1948). La récente édition de Sean Michael Wilson (2022), illustrée par Inko Ai Takita, sera présentée dans cette exposition. " https://www.guimet.fr/fr/expositions/la-cour-du-prince-genji We had two pleasingly successful events in Paris over the weekend. in the @le.reve.du.papillon a very nice bookshop about 10 minutes down the road from Notre dame, with owners Benoit and Louise who are also the publisher of our Tale of Genji book in French Éditions Synchronique ...I just realised that half the folk in the bookshop photo looked pretty bored, but actually it was a lively event, with many good questions and a relaxed wine party after...by coincidence the TV series 'Emily in Paris' is set on the same street, and they were filming there just 10 minutes before our event started. Then a well attended event in the auditorium of the 19thC Guimet Museum @museeguimet with the rakugo-ka, Cyril Coppini, who did a good job of being MC of the afternoon for me and japanese manga artists Sanazaki and Inko Ai Takita @inko_dokotei … speaking in French, Japanese and English, the clever laddie. There were so many people queued up in the museum bookshop afterwards who bought our book and got it signed that it took almost one hour and a half to sign them all and have a wee chat with everyone… nice! And thanks to Eric Mollet of the Francoise Japon Sasakawa Foundation and Luc Jondreville of the French Ministry of Finance for the support and the enjoyable drinks and chat afterwards about various aspects of France…though, as we can see from my face the next day in Montmartre I was very tired!       I have two new books coming out later this year (THIS year, the wan we are stannin in the noo!). And this book below is my 9th 'social issue' type book on aspects of history, society, politics etc...and likely to be the most controversial so far: "This wonderfully illustrated graphic novel is a collaboration between award-winning Scottish writer Sean Michael Wilson and Kurdish artist Keko, with backing and research help from Peace in Kurdistan Campaign and the International Initiative “Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan—Peace in Kurdistan,” groups with long term and impassioned commitment to the cause of Öcalan and the Kurdish people’s freedom." Coming out in April from PM Press in English and later in the year in German, Turkish and the Kurdish language itself. Looking forward to seeing them all. https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1579  Inko Ai Takita and I made a manga of the classic Tale of Genji book. And an exhibition including our book started today in the Guimet Museum in Paris, the French national museum for Asian art. They made this rather cool video which is playing in the museum, with myself, Ai and the French publisher. Nice! Célèbre pour le raffinement extrême de son art de cour, le Japon impérial de l’époque de Heian (794-1185) a notamment donné naissance à une œuvre majeure de la littérature classique japonaise, le Dit du Genji. Écrit au 11e siècle par une femme, la poétesse Murasaki Shikibu, il a généré depuis mille ans une iconographie extrêmement riche, influençant jusqu’aux mangaka contemporains. La récente édition de Sean Michael Wilson (2022), illustrée par Inko Ai Takita aux éditions Synchronique en est une illustration. Ce film est projeté dans l’exposition " À la cour du Prince Genji, mille ans d’imaginaire", japonais au musée national des arts asiatique-Guimet du 22 novembre 2023 au 25 mars 2024. https://vimeo.com/886774864?share=copy  Comics, post-capitalism and The Walker Brothers! What could go wrong... https://shepherd.com/bboy/2023/f/sean-michael-wilson  An interview with my wee self at RU (Real Utopia), an excellent group of progressives that I am a member of, which has recently started making videos. This one has myself and Mark from RU talking about my recent book: ‘Clear Away the Clichés: A Guide Book for Students about Communism, Capitalism, Anarchism and Post-Capitalism', going through the 15 cliches one by one, in a rather relaxed way. “There are various very silly clichés and misunderstandings about anarchism, communism, socialism and capitalism. Many people have almost no idea what these systems are, or believe the most basically inaccurate things. Various studies have shown that only about 25% of people in the UK and USA can give a good explanation of these various systems. If we don't know what they really are, then how can we chose which is best? So, let's clear away the cliches! This short and accessible book is an attempt to increase basic knowledge about anarchism, communism, socialism and capitalism really. And what a post-capitalist society could consist of. It does so by noting various common clichés and making clear what the views and approaches really are. Written in a plain style, and avoiding academic jargon, this book will be especially useful for students on course of economics, sociology, politics and cultural studies.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaaQpviXecM&t=51s  |
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