Will Buckingham

I’m very pleased to have this review published today in Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, a publication I’ve long admired.

This essay is republished/archived from Wayward Things, my very occasional substack newsletter.

The weekend before last, I was up in Taipei to run a two-day workshop at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU).

It was several weeks ago when we first stumbled across Xiaoyang Books (小陽。

Running a bookshop is hard.

Next week I’ll be at up at the Taipei International Book Exhibition!

Granny Chen pulled up beside me on her old bicycle, and rode alongside me as I walked home from the market.

Given that the whole world seems to be going south at the moment, we thought we might as well join them.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, in that uniquely Taiwanese way.

Last week, I was at the beautiful Tou Southwind café, with friends Naomi Sím, and the crew from the Lâm-tõo Project, running a bilingual Taiwanese / English workshop, working with new learners of Taiwanese, and experienced Taiwanese speakers, on writing c…

I’m more than excited to be working with weavers and community activists from the Tanimbar Islands in Indonesia, on this project weaving together Tanimbarese stories, textiles and philosophy.

One thing that has been keeping me busy lately is working on a translation of the graphic novel 神祕列車 (Mystery Train), an adaptation of the story of the same name by Kan Yao-ming (甘耀明), with a script by Shih Meng-hsieh (食夢蟹), and wonderful illustrations by…

I’ve just finished putting together the materials for my seventeenth public philosophy salon at the Wansha Performing Arts Centre (莎藝術展演中心) here in Tainan.

A few weeks back, it was a privilege to be up in Taipei at the headquarters of RTi, Radio Taiwan International, talking to Oleksandr Shyn on the wonderful show, In Taiwan We Speak, about our book Tâigael: Stories from Taiwanese and Gaelic.

I’m slightly behind on updates here.

Yesterday, I was at the Wansha Performing Arts Centre (涴莎藝術展演中心) in Tainan, for our regular Wind&Bones philosophy salon.

For the past couple of weeks at Wind&Bones Books, we’ve had our head down editing the final proofs and finalising the cover design for our book Tâigael: Stories from Taiwanese & Gaelic, and we’re excited that the book will be out in the world in two weeks’

This essay has just been published in Kosmopolis magazine in German translation.

In Tanimbar with Anna Keith Forbes, Henry Forbes and So’u Melatunan.

The Master said, “If you are respectful but lack ritual you will become exasperating; if you are careful but lack ritual you will become timid; if you are courageous but lack ritual you will become unruly; and if you are upright but lack ritual you will b…

Over at Wind&Bones Books, we’re very excited to have received funding from Creative Scotland to produce audio versions of the stories in our book, Tâigael: Stories from Taiwanese & Gaelic.

Some time ago (quite some time ago), I wrote about my scepticism towards the idea that writing necessarily entails suffering.

Last year, I was invited by friends at Indigo Seowon in Busan, Korea, to attend a book festival for young readers.

Last night, it was my honour to be in conversation with brilliant Taiwanese writer Naomi Sím (沈宛瑩 / Sím Oán-Êng) at the Birmingham (UK) International Literary Salon.

In the middle of any worthwhile project, there’s often a point where you step back, and you ask yourself, “How did I get myself mixed up in all this?”

Two days ago, I was up in the hills above Pingtung, at the Mountaineering Story House (登山故事館), in Taiwu 泰武 township.

An elderly prophet, and an attack on the Taipei subway.

I’ve been itching to share this for a while… At Wind&Bones Books, we’ve been keeping this under wraps over the past couple of months.

I’m writing this from the beautiful surroundings of the Taiwan Literature Base, on Qidong Street in Taipei.

I’m just getting to the end of a long semester of teaching, and looking forward to a bit more time thinking about writing.

Last week, at Wind&Bones, we launched our latest project, working to commission new stories in Taiwanese (Tâi-gí) and Gaelic, and translating between the two languages.

Every morning here in Tainan, I get up, make up a cup of coffee, and then crack open my Tâi-gí (Taiwanese Hokkien / Minnan) textbook for something between a half hour and an hour of language study.

Today, I’m catching the train up to Taipei to spend a day in the recording studio.

Last night, I was at the Wansha Performing Arts Centre, for the dress rehearsal for the 2024 Wansha Creative Dance Platform (𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒涴莎舞蹈創作平台), where a group of talented recent graduates in dance was performing an incredibly rich and diverse series of short p…

I had a lot of fun recently reviewing Justin Thomas McDaniel’s Wayward Distractions: Ornament, Emotion, Zombies and the Study of Buddhism in Thailand (NUS Press, 2021) for the International Journal of Asian Studies.

I have just had a very personal piece of memoir published over on Manitoba’s Public Parking magazine.

This week, I was invited by the National Museum of Taiwan Literature to take part in an international poetry reading alongside Professor John McAuliffe and Dr.

Today, I’m on the way to Busan, Korea, where I’m taking part in the Indigo Youth Book Fair, along with my fellow writers and thinkers, Michelle Kuo, Brian Palmer, Mori Ken, Linnea Roman and Moon Min.

Over the past few months, I have been working on a piece about the city of Tainan, our current home.

This January, I’ll be heading up to Taipei for two weeks, to be a writer in residence at the Taiwan Literature Base.

I’ve been interested in the role of storytelling in the classroom for a long time.

It always feels like a wonder, a miracle and a delight to see your own words translated into other languages, and your books finding new audiences.

Six years ago, I published my first, and — as yet — only travel memoir, Stealing With the Eyes: Imaginings and Incantations in Indonesia.

I’m delighted to see my translation of my good friend Nadya Radulova’s remarkable poem Нищо и никакво не можа (No Good for Nothing) published in Scotland’s very own Interpret Magazine.

Last week, I was fortunate enough to work with a group of students from across the Open Society University Network on a creative writing workshop exploring Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.

This piece was first published in Unmapped Magazine some time around 2014.

If you like philosophical stories about shipwrecks, gazelles and stranded children — and, let’s be frank, who doesn’t — then you should check out Ibn Tufayl (c. 1109–1185).

This piece was first published in 2021 on Creator’s Hub.

On 21 January, we ran our first Wind&Bones public philosophy salon in Chinese, in collaboration with the Wansha Performing Arts Centre (涴莎藝術展演中心) in Tainan, Taiwan.

One of the projects I’m most excited about in the coming months is the new philosophy salon that we’re running at Wind&Bones in partnership with the Wansha Performing Arts Centre, which is just down the road from us over in Anping.