July 5, 2011

SWET Newsletter, No. 128

Remembering March 11, 2011: Stories

   March 11 and Its Aftermath: A Study in (Mis)perceptions by Bob Gavey
   3.11 – 4.11 (9.11) by Anna Husson Isozaki
   Spring 2011 by William Wetherall
   Mud by David Gilman-Frederick
   Lost in Information by Asakura Kazuko

The powerful earthquake and its aftershocks, the tsunami that hit the northern coast of Honshu, and then the manmade nuclear power plant disaster on March 11 have jolted everyone out of routines and circumstances that we had come to take for granted. The impact has been different for each one of us, but few would say our lives and our attitudes have been quite the same since. To mark and remember that impact, the SWET Newsletter asked several members to write about what happened to them and how it resonates in their lives. These stories are a beginning. We hope this series can continue, giving our community a chance to share our experiences and reflect on our lives and the work we do.

 

SWET Events

Editing for Better Nonfiction Translation, by Lynne E. Riggs

The SWET workshop “Editing Translation for Better Communication,” led by translator/editor Lynne E. Riggs, was held in Kobe on February 19, 2011. Sixteen participants attended from Shiga prefecture, Shikoku, Awaji, Osaka, and other parts of the Kansai area. See also the related articles Translation and Editing and Editing in Japan.

David Moreton on Publishing the Diaries of an English P.O.W., by David Gilman-Frederick

David Moreton is an English teacher at Tokushima Bunri University. He holds an M.A. in Asian Studies from the University of British Columbia. On Sunday, March 27, 2011, he spoke about his most recent work, Surviving the War: The Secret Diaries of an English P.O.W. along the Thailand-Burma Railway, 1942–1945 (Tokushima, Japan: Education Publishing Center, 2010).

 

From the Trenches

Newsletter News: Toward a New Phase, by the SWET Newsletter Editorial Team

Even without a natural disaster of epic proportions, 2011 seemed slated to be a turning-point year for SWET. With our 30th anniversary behind us, generation change rapidly taking place within our membership, and the rise of new technologies, values, and tastes, it seems time for something fresh. The SWET Newsletter in its present form is ready to be superseded.

The current editorial team that has supported the newsletter in its present guise will carry on in this format for two more issues, No. 129 and No. 130, taking us to the beginning of 2012. We look forward to input and contributions to fill our pages for these issues so that we can go out with our sails filled right up to our self-proposed finish line. Please help make the next two issues rich and full through our “mutual exchange of professional wisdom.”

So there is plenty of time to think: What will come next? Who will be its architects and coordinators? What are the potentials and possibilities? We hope that all those who value the society and sharing of wordsmiths will think about how to answer such questions and contribute to implementation of the answers arrived at. Those of us who now work on the Newsletter hope there will be plenty of ideas, discussion, and mulling of options.

There is much to be learned from other organizations. Even though a cross-professional society like SWET seems to be one of a kind in the world, models of similar feather may be found in the Editors’ Association of Canada (another organization with a 30-year history), the American Copy Editors Society, the Editorial Freelancers Association in the United States, the Society of Editors (New South Wales, Australia), the Society for Editors and Proofreaders in the United Kingdom, the American Translators Association, and so on, all of which are a few mouse clicks away even for the most remotely located professional.

So, don’t sit back and wait to see what someone else will do! Remember, SWET is you!

SWET Newsletter Committee
newsletter [at] swet.jp

 

Book Review

Awa Naoko in Translation

Reviewed by Misa Dikengil Lindberg

A Fox’s Window and Other Stories, by Awa Naoko. Translated by Toshiya Kamei. New Orleans: UNO Press, 2009. ISBN 978-1-60801-006-6, $22.95.