So I thought readers might be interested to know the writer before she arrived in Japan.įor example, readers of the column could have no inkling of my motherless childhood, which was undoubtedly a formative experience.Īnd I thought readers might be interested to learn that as a 16-year-old I worked for Joseph Heller, the author of the runaway success Catch-22.Īlso my family and friends were supportive and encouraging from the start. I had a dedicated readership of my regular ‘Crossing Cultures’ column in The Japan Times, and I was always aware my readers were only getting part of my story – that of an American woman, married to an American, raising four children in rural Japan. I am happy to say my memoir The View From Breast Pocket Mountain is no longer a ‘project’ but a finished and published book. Related article – Publishing: The ultimate guide to publishing a life story “The province of Shizuoka, Japan’s premier green-tea growing region, is where I’ve made my home and raised my four bilingual-bicultural children.”Īnton’s acclaimed memoir The View From Breast Pocket Mountain has been awarded the Book Readers Appreciation Group (BRAG) medallion 2021 and the Self-Publishing Review Book Awards gold medal 2020.Īnd this week she shares with Forever Young Autobiographies readers more about the book, how it was created plus tips for new writers … “After our first year of studying yoga and martial arts under a tyrannical sensei, we settled in rural Japan,” Anton said. Indeed, the family was on the road, mostly camping, for a year before arriving in Japan. Next, in 1974, she left the United States with her husband and daughter, 5, and drove a VW Beetle from Amsterdam to Afghanistan. Memoir writer Karen Hill Anton has certainly had one interesting life!įirstly she grew up in New York City and hitch-hiked the length and breadth of Europe as a youngster in 1965.

Photos: Karen Hill Anton What The Japan Times columnist and skilled Japanese calligrapher knows about leading an adventurous life and living in Japan Memoir The View From Breast Pocket Mountain (centre) by Karen Hill Anton (right), who is a skilled Japanese calligrapher (left).

The view from breast pocket mountain