Takatsu

Event: Transcending Print: Online Literature, Cell Phone Novels and Transmedia Culture

Bio: Takatsu, known as a passionate trailblazer of online literature and transmedia storytelling, is an award-winning writer of literary fiction, featured Wattpad author, poet, multimedia artist and literature student. In 2008, through Secondhand Memories, he pioneered the minimalist Japanese "cell phone novel" movement in the English-language world. Espresso Love (2014), a dystopian magical-realism literary prose novel, won 2014 Watty's Award, reached 800,000 reads in eight months and has been reviewed widely.

Book: Secondhand Memories, Sakura Publishing

Synopsis: Originally serialized online in 2008 and winning the Textnovel Reader's Choice Award in 2009, Secondhand Memories pioneered the Japanese cell phone novel phenomenon in the English-speaking world, marking a moment in history and re-envisioning technology, youth culture, community and literature for thousands of young writers and readers. The remarkably unique fusion of simple haiku-like poetic technique, visual text flow and micro-prose storytelling forms a coming-of-age journey about Seiji and Aoi: high school sweethearts, who are separated by a tragic chasm of frozen time. As the rest of the world moves on, Seiji discovers that life is more complicated than he thought - and that the heart and mind is quite vulnerable to change. Published in 2015 by Sakura Publishing, the novel contemplates the meaning of growing up, love, loss and sacrifice.