Naomi Ishiguro on world-building, what makes a writer and why “hope is the only logical position to hold”

Welcome to Season 2 of the How You Find Your Voice podcast. Expect more conversations on creativity, identity and voice, on and off the page. Summary What does it mean to become a writer, especially when writing can feel precarious, uncertain and difficult to sustain? And how do stories, communities and shared imagination help us find hope? In this episode of How You Find Your Voice, host Jessie Huth speaks with writer Naomi Ishiguro about her dazzling new fantasy novel The Rainshadow Orphans. Inspired by anime, Japanese folklore, yokai stories, coding clubs, bubble tea and the young people Naomi taught as a secondary school teacher, The Rainshadow Orphans blends cyberpunk and fantasy into a richly imagined world of dragons, hackers, sun spirits and resistance movements. Together, Jessie and Naomi explore the themes running beneath the novel: found family, friendship, hope, revenge, inequality, technology and the tension between individualism and community. Naomi reflects on how teaching teenagers shaped both the emotional heart and imaginative energy of the book, and how studying Jane Eyre in granular detail became an unexpected masterclass in writing fiction. The conversation also explores world-building, Japanese folklore and animism, the influence of anime and storytelling traditions, and why Naomi sees fantasy as a way of asking questions rather than providing answers. Naomi talks honestly about the realities of publishing, creative burnout, imposter syndrome and the difficulty of sustaining a writing life, even after publication. Naomi also shares why she believes being a writer has nothing to do with external validation and everything to do with the act of writing itself. This is a conversation about imagination, hope, creativity, storytelling, and what it really means to find your voice as a writer.   Topics Covered The inspiration behind The Rainshadow Orphans Anime, manga and Japanese pop culture influences Yokai, animism and Japanese folklore Building fantasy worlds and magic systems Cyberpunk, fantasy and speculative fiction Teaching creative writing and working with teenagers Bubble tea, coding clubs and robotics teams Found family, friendship and community Collective values versus individualism Writing across cultural influences and traditions Worldbuilding in a culturally sensitive way Fantasy as a way of asking questions Revenge, justice and strategic thinking Hope as a creative and political act AI, technology and human creativity Dragons, dragon pearls and mythological influences Writing without rigid genre boundaries Teaching Jane Eyre and learning narrative craft Creative burnout and disillusionment with publishing Imposter syndrome and creative identity What makes someone “a writer” External validation versus artistic integrity Finding your voice through writing About Naomi Ishiguro Naomi Ishiguro is the author of the novel Common Ground and the collection of stories Escape Routes. She’s a graduate of the University of East Anglia’s MFA Creative Writing program, and has worked as both a secondary school English teacher and a freelance creative writing teacher. She also spent two lovely years in her early twenties working as a bookseller and bibliotherapist at Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights in Bath. You can find out more about Naomi and The Rainshadow Orphans here.    About the Podcast How You Find Your Voice is the podcast that asks brilliant guests, mostly women, how they found or reclaimed their voices. Through conversations with writers, artists, thinkers and entrepreneurs, we explore the work they have made, the lives they have lived and the inner transformations that made it possible.   We talk about turning points and resistance, silence and expression, creative risk and process, and the often messy journey of becoming. Listen and Follow If you enjoyed this conversation, please follow the podcast and leave a review. It really helps more people discover the show and supports independent podcasts like this one. If you’d like to stay connected to these conversations and hear about upcoming events, salons and gatherings, you can join the How You Find Your Voice mailing list here.  You can also follow along on Substack for longer reflections, or on Instagram for clips and updates. Keywords Naomi Ishiguro interview, The Rainshadow Orphans podcast, Japanese folklore fantasy, yokai and animism, cyberpunk fantasy novel, Studio Ghibli inspired books, anime influences in fiction, found family fantasy, speculative fiction podcast, writing and identity, creative burnout and publishing, fantasy world-building, dragons and mythology, hope in fiction, women and creativity, literary podcast, fantasy writing process, Japanese mythology books, finding your voice podcast, writers on writing