I’ve already posted about the Authors for Japan auction, which started yesterday and runs for the rest of this week: there are some very tempting lots on offer, so take a look. All money raised will be paid directly to the British Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal.

Through one of the donors, Rachel J. Fenton, who is offering a Hand-made artist’s pamphlet of poetry and art work, I discovered another initiative that’s being set up to raise money for Japan: booksthathelp.org is proposing to create New Sun Rising: Stories for Japan, “a collection of stories and poems and art honoring and celebrating Japan”.

Here’s what they need:

your stories, poems, and artwork (see their submission page)
your tweets and blogs and vlogs and facebooks (see their helping out page)
your eyeballs and discerning literary and artistic judgement (see their helping out page)

They would welcome any submissions that are “relevant to or evocative of Japan” – including manga and microfiction… They will then be donating 100% of the proceeds to a charity working with the relief effort in Japan. And “they”, by the way, are authors Sessha Batto, Frankie Sachs (who would love to be able to include a wood-cut), Elle, Susan May James, Solange Noir and Michelle Goode.

Then, thanks to Playing by the Book, I’m able to pass on two more initiatives which have both put the call out for illustrators:

Art for Japan, set up by sisters Meg and Alice Hunt, is calling on any “cartoonist, illustrator, designer, animator, crafter, fine artist, etc.” for donations of work to be auctioned on eBay in early April. Anyone who can help is asked to email artforjapan2011ATgmailDOTcom; for full details go here.

And Illustration Rally has launched Ganbare Nippon: Don’t Give Up Japan, calling out for both original artwork to auction and submissions to their Rally for Japan, from which they plan to produce merchandise to sell – “so please give us your best images of hope unity and love.” See here for details.

And finally, Zoe at Playing by the Book is herself running a series of auctions on her blog. First up is an absolutely beautiful cherry blossom brooch made by her sister Kate. Bidding ends on 26 March; later in the week, Zoe’s next auction will be for a signed copy of Brian Wildsmith’s Animal Gallery. Zoe and Kate’s Japan Quake Appeal button was launched by a fellow blogger based in Tokyo, Jo at A Bit of This and a Bit of That. It’s a sobering thought that Jo is not using her sewing machine at the moment to save power… Don’t miss out on her raffle for a fantastic goody-bag of her gorgeous creations (again, the deadline is 26 March); and elsewhere on her blog you can find information about craft auctions for the Japan Quake Appeal (here, for example).

If you are involved in any other online initiatives to raise money to help Japan, please do let us know so we can spread the word…