Karen Hill Anton and her memoir The View From Breast Pocket Mountain

Case study: American memoirist Karen Hill Anton and writing her award-winning The View From Breast Pocket Mountain. A young Karen Hill Anton doing calligraphy; book cover of The View From Breast Pocket Mountain; and a portrait photo of Anton. Photos Karen Hill Anton — Memoir *The View From Breast Pocket Mountain* (centre) by Karen Hill Anton (right), who is a skilled Japanese calligrapher (left). Photos: Karen Hill Anton

What The Japan Times columnist and skilled Japanese calligrapher knows about leading an adventurous life and living in Japan

Memoir writer Karen Hill Anton has certainly had one interesting life!

Firstly she grew up in New York City and hitch-hiked the length and breadth of Europe as a youngster in 1965.

Next, in 1974, she left the United States with her husband and daughter, 5, and drove a VW Beetle from Amsterdam to Afghanistan.

Indeed, the family was on the road, mostly camping, for a year before arriving in Japan.

“After our first year of studying yoga and martial arts under a tyrannical sensei, we settled in rural Japan,” Anton said.

“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.”

Anton’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.

And this week she shares with Forever Young Autobiographies readers more about the book, how it was created plus tips for new creators …

A writing journey

What is The View From Breast Pocket Mountain about?

For 15 years I wrote the column ‘Crossing Cultures’ for The Japan Times, Japan’s oldest and largest English-language newspaper.

In addition, I am an avid practitioner of Japanese calligraphy and have achieved second-level mastery.

However, my memoir, The View From Breast Pocket Mountain, covers a full life that includes marriage and motherhood, love and loss, and various daunting challenges.

The memoir is filled with serendipitous encounters with the very famous, and those unknown and unnamed.

Certainly my experience of travelling and living abroad has led me to highlight the many instances of support, generosity and kindness I’ve received.

As well as confirmed my belief in our ability to transcend the boundaries of culture, ethnicity and nationality.

Your Family Stories System. Father and girl on his shoulders with arms spread wide at the beach.

How the book idea took shape

I am happy to say my memoir The View From Breast Pocket Mountain is no longer a ‘project’ but a finished and published book.

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.

So I thought readers might be interested to know the writer before she arrived in Japan.

For example, readers of the column could have no inkling of my motherless childhood, which was undoubtedly a formative experience.

And 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.

Also my family and friends were supportive and encouraging from the start.

Writing and finishing the book

Getting started

My memoir The View From Breast Pocket Mountain was in draft form for about 10 years.

However, about three years ago I decided it was something I wanted to complete.

So for guidance, I turned to a friend, a New York Times bestselling author and memoirist.

The first thing she told me to do was read authors of well-received memoirs.

This assignment required that I also write a report of my views of these books.

Later I attended a writer’s conference where my work was read in workshops and critiqued by editors.

It was encouraging that my memoir received the conference award for Most Outstanding Nonfiction.

After I completed the manuscript, and had beta readings, I hired a developmental editor, copy editor, proofreader, book formatter and cover designer.

Challenges and rewards

Firstly I found creating structure hard.

Certainly our lives are not always so structured (mine wasn’t). But we must impose structure in writing a memoir or it will be a ramble.

Also, in the beginning, it was hard uncovering the theme of my memoir, which I feel is only revealed as you write.

In short, the theme is the thread that is woven throughout the book and gives it coherence.

Favourite parts of the memoir?

Finally writing my story. My whole story.

And of course hearing from readers that The View From Breast Pocket Mountain was “heartbreaking and heartwarming”, “truly inspiring” and “I couldn’t put it down”!

Also I did not try to ‘target a demographic’ and I have been rewarded by praise and appreciation from men and women, young and mature, of many ethnicities and nationalities, of varied professions, those who are well-travelled, and those who’ve never left their hometowns.

Indeed it is hard to select a favourite part of the book because it’s all my favourite!

But if I had to choose, the part where I write about my adjustment to life in Japan: the isolation and loneliness I experienced living in a remote farmhouse, the challenges I faced learning Japanese and calligraphy, my experiences raising my children in a foreign context, and my interactions with other mothers and neighbours.

Tips for other life-story writers

Memoir is a popular genre; thousands are published every year.

However, all readers of memoirs want to know: “What is so interesting about this person’s life that will induce me to read it?”

So to set your book apart from all those who may want to write about their lives, I think the memoirist must ask him or herself what is my story?

Therefore it must have momentum and not just be a collection of vignettes (“I went here, I did that.”).

Second I think honesty and the willingness to disclose something about yourself are what readers respond to. And what makes your work compelling.

Most importantly remember you want readers to relate and care – and that’s what will get them from the first page to the last.

Final say

The View From Breast Pocket Mountain showcases an amazing mix of cultures.

However, it is also about making a life in a distant land over many decades.

Likewise, this award-winning memoir has taken Anton much time and love to craft.

So take a read for yourself by purchasing a copy from Kobo, Amazon, Apple Books, Google Books, Barnes & Noble or Bookshop.org.

And find out more about Anton and her writing at her website.

Happy writing!

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Your say

Where is your life-story set? Does it include overseas places like Anton? I always love hearing from different people who are sitting down to create. Leave a reply in the comments section at the end of this article or drop me an email.

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