Articles
July 21, 2009
Self-Publishing a Self-Initiated Translation
A professional non-fiction translator for over 40 years, Fred Uleman, in September 2009, self-published Rethinking the Constitution: An Anthology of Japanese Opinion, a translation of Kodansha’s 2004 Nihon no kenpo: Kokumin shuken no ronten. SWET asked Uleman how he came to translate and publish a book he was not paid to do, and what it involved.
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July 15, 2009
Academic Editing in the Humanities
by Kate Wildman Nakai
In the fields of history, thought, art history, religion, and literature, which are the main subjects of articles published in Monumenta Nipponica, the rules of academic writing are less formally structured than in the sciences, creating greater freedom but also greater possibility for uncertainty, a lack of clarity, and poor organization. Researchers have traditionally been guided as... more
July 8, 2009
Kurodahan: Selling to a Niche
by Ginny Tapley
Based in Fukuoka, Kyushu, far from the usual centers of publishing, Edward Lipsett, Stephen Carter and Chris Ryal have established Kurodahan Press, a new type of publisher now entering its fifth year. Having started with Mayumura Taku’s Administrator in 2003, Kurodahan specializes in translated Japanese literature, particularly genre fiction such as science fiction, horror, fantasy, and mystery. Ultimately, however, they aim... more
July 1, 2009
Young Adult Fantasy in Translation: An 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... more
April 2, 2009
More thoughts on self-publishing
by Hugh Ashton
I’m not attempting to monopolize this blog, but my last post seemed to generate quite a lot of interest, including some from people who had interesting things to say, but haven’t yet bothered to write them here as comments.
One point that was made in conversation to me was the question of self-publishing fiction rather than non-fiction. To summarize... more
March 27, 2009
Is this the future of fiction publishing?
by Hugh Ashton
About two and a half years ago, I finished a novel with which I was quite pleased - Beneath Gray Skies - it’s an alternative history novel, set in the Confederacy of the 1920s. Actually, I was very pleased with it indeed. I’d done things in my writing I’d never done before: multiple points of view,... more