Articles

Inclusive Language and Translations

From the SWET Newsletter Archive/Editors’ Corner

Many journalists and writers are working hard these days to free their prose of sexist bias. When they don’t, editors often must help them out. A translator, who must take into account the characteristics of two languages at once in the routine course of her work, has special problems in this regard.

The... more

Pianyan, Little Keys, and Yumiko Sakuma

By Deborah Iwabuchi

When SWET member Deborah Iwabuchi translated a Japanese children’s book into English, she, a collaborator, and the author all read an article in the September–October 2011 issue of Nihon jidō bungaku (Japanese Children’s Literature).

In the article, “Honyaku-tte nan da” (What Exactly Is Translation?), English-to-Japanese translator Yumiko Sakuma describes her career and conveys the... more

True Collaboration on A True Novel

Interview by Anna Zielinska-Elliott and Lynne E. Riggs

Juliet Winters Carpenter is a well-known translator of Japanese literature and research professor at Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts in Kyoto. Her list of translations is very long and includes works by Abe Kōbō, Tawara Machi, Enchi Fumiko, Shiba Ryōtarō, and many other writers. Her recent translation of Minae Mizumura’s* A... more

SWET Style Sheet

SWET Style Sheet and Submission Guidelines These guidelines are intended for articles published in SWET online and print publications (revised May 2014).

MATTERS OF STYLE In general, follow the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition (CMS16). For spelling and hyphenation, follow Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition. For style issues specific... more

Learning to Write Well

By Peter Mallett

In 2005 to 2006 university professor and writer Peter Mallett did a master’s degree in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University in the U.K. where he began his first novel, Appassionata. Formerly Arts editor of Kansai Time Out and publisher/editor of Artspace, he has written for the Asahi Evening News, Gramophone Japan, Opera News, the New... more

Rebecca Otowa on Crafting “My Awesome Japan Adventure”

By Avery Fischer Udagawa

Rebecca Otowa authored the memoir At Home in Japan: A Foreign Woman’s Journey of Discovery (Tuttle Publishing, May 2010), which led to a review in SWET Newsletter No. 124, available online to members, and a speech described in No. 126. Otowa has now released a second book, this time for children. My Awesome Japan Adventure: A... more