Articles
September 23, 2014
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
January 27, 2014
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
November 19, 2013
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
October 2, 2013
Sixty Years of Journal-Keeping
By Donald Richie
A journal is a personal record of occurrences, experiences, and reflections that is kept on a regular basis. “A regular basis” is the operative part of that definition. It’s a diary. And people have kept them over the centuries, for all sorts of reasons: as an aide-memoire, as a kind of a daybook, or as a companion. No matter how you... more
September 16, 2013
Special SWET Report: Susan Bassnett on Translation as a Shaping Force in English
Juliet Winters Carpenter
This article is a summary of a talk given by Professor Susan Bassnett of the University of Warwick, at the plenary session of the annual conference of the Japan Association of College English Teachers, with support from the British Council, held at Kyoto University, Clock Tower Hall, 31 August 2013. Professor Bassnett is author of Translation Studies (4th edition; London & New... more
April 25, 2013
Spirited Away: Translating Hideo Furukawa
by Hart Larrabee
Nagano-based translator Hart Larrabee reflects on his experience at the July 2012 summer workshop at the British Centre for Literary Translation. Those who are considering attending this year’s workshop (applications are due 7 May 2013) may also wish to read descriptions of the 2010 and 2011 workshops that were written by Ginny Tapley Takemori and Alison Watts... more