Current Writer in Residence
Congratulations to Michiyo Miyake!
We are delighted to announce our Don Bank Writer in Residence for 2025/26.
Michiyo is a writer, translator and independent publisher born in Japan, based in Sydney. She holds a PhD in literature from Waseda University in Tokyo and has published scholarly articles on interwar British and American literature in Japan.
Since migrating to Sydney in 2016, she has been writing fiction and poetry in English. In 2023, she launched Uguisu Books, an independent publishing label dedicated to works that explore Japanese and Australian social issues, the history of Asia-Pacific region, and the experience of living between different cultures and languages. In 2024, she published Green Metal: Life in Tokyo during the Nuclear Catastrophe, a novella based on her experience during the Fukushima nuclear disaster. She has also written Japanese travel essays, Postcard from Amami, The Island of Resilience, highlighting overlooked locations particularly those linked to Japan’s social movements, such as civil rights and anti-nuclear activism. She is active in the indie book and zine scene in both Australia and Japan.
Michiyo will spend her six-month residency writing a collection of short stories based on sketches of her early years in Sydney as a child. These stories navigate themes of bilingualism, memory of places and the lingering historical tensions of World War II - both within mainstream Australian society and among other East Asian communities that experienced Japanese occupation.
We look forward to working with Michiyo on community programs and wish her all the best for a productive and inspiring residency.