Articles
May 10, 2016
SWET Toolbox: Two Apps to Help You Transcribe Audio Files
Reviewed by Winifred A. Bird
As a journalist, I love having transcribed versions of important interviews on file. I find scanning a Word document for key information much easier than delving back into an old audio file, and I like being able to mark up the text and return to it months or even years later. I’m much less enthusiastic about... more
April 1, 2016
SWET Toolbox: Academic Writing Book Review
They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing, by Gerald Graff and Cathy Burkenstein. New York: W. W. Norton, February 2014, 352 pages. ISBN: 978-0-393-90534-2. (e-book here)
Reviewed by Winifred A. Bird
Several years ago, I happened to pick up this book from a free-box near a college campus in California. The compact volume, which provides... more
March 28, 2016
Translation in the “Age of English”
Juliet Winters Carpenter
On December 6, 2014, in Osaka, Juliet Winters Carpenter, professor at Doshisha Women’s College and a prolific translator, spoke about translating the work of Minae Mizumura and gave a workshop on a passage from The Fall of Language in the Age of English (Columbia University Press, 2015). This article, with some of the workshop results included at the... more
March 9, 2016
SWET Toolbox: Three Apps for Improving Productivity
By Winifred A. Bird
This January 1, I sat down with my journal and resolutely promised myself to achieve work-life balance. This is becoming something of a New Year’s ritual for me. I work from home as a writer and translator, and I don’t have kids, so work tends to spread over my life like an out-of-control kudzu vine. Every year... more
October 27, 2015
Contemporary Japan in Crime Fiction
Interview by Suzanne Kamata
A SWET member writing under the pseudonym Lea O’Harra announces her first novel, Imperfect Strangers, published earlier this year in digital form by Endeavour Press (UK) and in print by Fine Line Press (New Zealand) and available on Amazon. Shikoku-based writer Suzanne Kamata asked the new author a few questions by... more
June 16, 2015
From Book Editor to Thriller Writer: Barry Lancet’s Advice to Aspiring Scribes
Jeremy Hill On May 10, 2015, award-winning author of the thrillers Japantown and Tokyo Kill Barry Lancet spoke about how he moved from a career in editing to writing fiction and offered some pointers for aspiring authors. The lively audience contributed to the experience and insights shared. Our thanks to Jeremy Hill, who wrote this report based... more