June 10, 2009

SWET Newsletter, No. 122

Features

Young Adult Fantasy in Translation (Interview with Cathy Hirano), by Misa Dikengil

SWET member Cathy Hirano is a Japanese-English translator living in Shikoku. Her translation of the young adult (YA) novel The Friends by Kazumi Yumoto (Natsu no niwa; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996) won the Mildred L. Batchelder Award for children’s literature in translation and the Boston Globe–Horn Book award for children’s fiction (both in 1997). Misa Dikengil interviewed Hirano via email about her most recent YA publications: a translation of Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Uehashi (Seirei no moribito; Scholastic, 2008) and a revised reissue of her 1993 translation of Dragon Sword and Wind Child by Noriko Ogiwara (Sorairo magatama; VIZ Media, 2007). Shortly after the interview, Hirano’s translation of Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit received the 2009 Mildred L. Batchelder Award for Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic.

Some Notes on Anthologies, by Suzanne Kamata

American Suzanne Kamata has lived in Tokushima Prefecture for the past twenty-one years. She is the author of a novel, Losing Kei (Leapfrog Press, 2008), and the editor of three anthologies: The Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan (Stone Bridge Press, 1997), Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs (Beacon Press, 2008), and Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering (Wyatt Mackenzie Publishing, May 2009). She has also contributed to several anthologies including, most recently, One Big Happy Family: 18 Writers Talk About Polyamory, Open Adoption, Mixed Marriage, Househusbandry, Single Motherhood, and Other Realities of Truly Modern Love (Riverhead Books, 2009) edited by Rebecca Walker.

SWET Events

Writing about Culture and Travel in Japan (panel discussion by Amy Katoh, Stephen Mansfield, Kim Schuefftan, and Eugene Tarshis)

On October 21, 2008, SWET brought together a panel of writers and editors devoted to wordsmithing about Japanese culture and travel. Amy Katoh is owner of the Blue & White shop and author of numerous books including Japan: The Art of Living, Japan, Country Living, Blue and White Japan, and Otafuku. Stephen Mansfield is a photojournalist, magazine writer, and author of numerous books including the recently published Tokyo: A Cultural and Literary History. Kim Schuefftan is a book editor and writer, and currently editor of Ikebana International magazine. Eugene Tarshis is an editor and author of articles published in Kyoto Journal, Kansai Scene, and Kansai Time Out); he is currently editor of the ANA in-flight magazine Wingspan. The discussion was moderated by SWET events anchor, translator Lynne E. Riggs, managing editor of Monumenta Nipponica at the time of the event.

Academic Editing in the Humanities, by Kate Wildman Nakai

A senior scholar in the field of history (premodern Japan), professor of history at Sophia University, Faculty of Liberal Arts, and editor of Monumenta Nipponica since 1997, Kate Wildman Nakai has worked assiduously to improve the quality of academic writing and scholarship that flows over her desk. SWET asked her to share some of her extensive experience with the writing and editorial issues involved in preparing academic articles in the humanities for publication.

SWET Tribute

Remembering Becky Davis · by Susan Schmidt

The English-language publishing, editing, and writing community in Japan lost one of its pillars last summer, when Becky M. Davis—editor, designer, publisher, teacher, mentor, and friend to so many of us—died on July 20 in Tokyo. She was 65 years old.

Excerpts from the article:

“Dana Levy, an award-winning book designer who worked at Weatherhill during the 1970s, remembers Becky as “one of the only editors I ever worked with who really had a designer’s eye and appreciated the aesthetics of books as well as the content.” Nina Raj, an editorial colleague at Weatherhill, recalls that “her attention to detail was legendary; whether it was the finer points of comma usage, marking galley proofs, or writing jacket blurbs, she was professional to the core, and she was always there to share her vast knowledge.” Two of the books for which Becky was responsible during her years at Weatherhill, and of which she was most proud, were The Art of Japanese Joinery (1977, still in print) and Shigaraki, Potters’ Valley (recently reprinted by another publisher).

. . . In 1977 Becky left Weatherhill and began a career as a freelance editor, typographer, and designer. In 1985 she incorporated her business as EDS (Editorial and Design Services), Inc., under whose name she edited, designed, and produced books, journals, and a multitude of other publications in a variety of media for the next two decades. Her clients included the Toyota Foundation, Kosei Publishing Company, Japan Echo, Japan Quarterly, the Japan Foundation, the Japan Center for Intercultural Exchange (JCIE), and many others. One of the projects she was most proud of was the design and editing of The Art of the Lotus Sutra: Japanese Masterpieces (1989) for Kosei Publishing.”

SWET Cyber Matters

The Enormity of Our Task · Torkil Christensen

Another distillation of the highlights of the SWET-L and SWET Weblog tells of struggles semantic and technical, with the world around us changing at alarming speed, throwing up enormities galore. In cases (from the SWET blog) where matters taken up are not provided with full links, we assure you of simple access and suggest you let your favorite search engine do the walking.

Book Review

A Whirlwind Tour of Language Charles De Wolf

Professor of linguistics and experienced translator Charles De Wolf reviews Language: The Big Picture by Peter Sharpe (London: Continuum Books, 2009. 254 pp. Softcover, ISBN 978-0-8264-9815-1. £9.99.) with many informative and entertaining asides.