On Thursday Oct. 6, Hamilton students were delighted to host Ruth Ozeki for the Tolles Lecture Series, and welcome her with a book club and writing workshop dedicated to her novels. Ruth Ozeki is the author of four novels and an independent filmmaker, born in New Haven, Connecticut and now living in British Columbia, Canada. She teaches creative writing at Smith College and also practices Zen Buddhism as a certified priest. Her works tackle real world societal concerns head-on, including mental health issues, environmental problems, technology, politics, paired with flawed, realistic characters and sarcastic humor.

Ozeki’s first two novels,

My Year of Meats

(1998) and

All Over Creation

(2003) both deal with controversies in the food industry and have been published in 14 countries. Since then her third novel,

A Tale for the Time Being

(2013) discusses a young Japanese-American girl struggling with her own identity and mental health problems. It won the LA Times Book Award and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the National Books Critics Circle Award. Meanwhile, her most recent novel,

A Book of Form and Emptiness

, tells the story of a young boy, who begins to hear the voices of inanimate objects around him after losing his father. Clearly, Ozeki has a strong repertoire of works, including multiple independent films and documentaries, that helped earn her place in the Tolles Lecture Series.

The Tolles Lecture was established in 1991 to honor Winston Tolles, Hamilton Class of 1928 and Dean from 1947 to 1972. As Hamilton’s website describes, “It brings to the Hamilton campus distinguished writers in the field of literature, journalism and theater to lecture and meet with students.” The lecture occurs annually and is usually followed by a book signing, as was the case with Ms. Ozeki. Ozeki’s lecture focused mainly on her newest novel and included an excerpt of it for the audience, as well as her writing process and comments on her previous novels.

Ozeki explained that her novels usually come in pairs, with the first two approaching environmental impacts of the food industry and problems with media, asking the thematic question of what is real or authentic, and how one can tell in such a convoluted world. In comparison, her last two novels turned towards mental health issues in young people and centered on the power of storytelling. It also seems as though multiple aspects of Ruth’s identity are intertwined in all of her novels, whether that is Buddhist philosophy, Japanese-American culture, or what it’s like to be a writer.

Hamilton students might have been made aware of Ozeki’s visit to campus by the posters lining the halls around campus displaying quotes from Ozeki’s novels, primarily

A Tale for the Time Being

, along with QR codes for students to scan and respond to the quotations with their own thoughts. This is the work of Kyoko Omori, Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures, and Naomi Guttman, Professor of Literature and Creative Writing, who launched a Ruth Ozeki book club for students and staff in preparation for Ozeki’s lecture/book signing on campus. Each member was asked to send in a favorite or meaningful quote from the book, which was then turned into a poster and compiled in pamphlets along with others’ comments to be distributed during the Tolles Lecture. This effort was followed by a creative writing workshop led by Ozeki on the day of her lecture, much to the pleasure of curious and prospective writers at Hamilton.

After the Lecture, Ozeki had time to field some questions from the audience, mostly about her writing process. When asked what influences her writing, Ozeki replied that teaching creative writing has helped her, especially since some of her novels focus on young characters.

“It’s exciting to be around young people,” she noted, and actively teaching creative writing allows her to really think about what she’s doing and how she writes. Another influence on her writing is her career in filmmaking. Ozeki emphasized the importance of learning the art of storytelling through different mediums, especially in self-taught creative writing, as Ruth herself experienced. Next, Ozeki talked about outside research as an integral part of the writing process, particularly since her books deal with many real life problems. She goes through libraries, databases, websites and in-person interviews, most thoroughly on the subject of voice-hearing for

The Book of Form and Emptiness

, she pointed out. Finally, Ozeki hinted that her next work could be a memoir or short story, but will most likely be non-fiction.

Ruth Ozeki tackles many difficult subjects in her stories. A lesson she ended her talk with was about the idea of interdependence or interbeing. She asked the audience to consider the relationship between a wave and the ocean; something and nothing, respectively. A wave is born from the depths of the ocean, it rises until it reaches its peak, but always has to fall again and become part of the ocean once more. This concept of impermanence is ever-lasting and should always be accounted for. Her books can be purchased from the school store.