Articles
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
April 14, 2015
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
December 17, 2014
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
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