March 31, 2006

SWET Newsletter, Number 111

Contents

Writing for Children: Straight Talk from Suzanne Kamata, by Eugene Tarshis
An American writer living in Tokushima and successfully publishing in children’s magazines shared her valuable how-to knowledge and lessons learned at a Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators presentation and mini-workshop. SWET is grateful to Suzanne Kamata and SCBWI for allowing us to share Kamata’s insights with our members.

Interview: Otafuku Encounters: Amy Katoh, by Damon Shulenberger
Author of Otafuku: Joy of Japan (Tuttle, June 2005), Amy Katoh is known for her shop Blue & White, a fixture of Tokyo’s Azabu Juban area for more than 30 years, and three previous books. SWET pried into the profession and persona of one of Japan’s greatest champions of traditional crafts and culture.

SWET about Town

Markuz Wernli Saitō on Book Design (Lynne E. Riggs)
A Swiss designer with a background in commercial and website design, Markuz Wernli Saitō was the photographer/designer of Stone Bridge Press’s Mirei Shigemori: Modernizing the Japanese Garden, a book based on the doctoral dissertation of author Christian Tschumi on the twentieth-century scholar and garden designer. On January 22, 2006 Wernli Saitō spoke about how the photographs were chosen and the design conceived and executed.
Editorial Insights (Peter Goodman)
Peter Goodman, president of Stone Bridge Press, and long-time SWET stalwart, contributed the following insights from his perspective as supervising editor of the project.

Mourning Newspapers? (Allan Murphy)
Are newspapers?and responsible newsgathering?doomed to become casualties of the IT revolution? Has anyone noticed the recent exodus of U.S. and Canadian reporters from Tokyo? In a February discussion at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, representatives of major news services considered the future of international journalism.

SWET Events

Eating and Drinking in the New Year (Helen Lewis and Yoshida Shūji)
The January New Year Party and February SWET Resource Forum started the year with two opportunities for old and new members to meet and converse in person about everything from visa status to retirement amenities, not to mention how to find work or a reliable copyeditor for an academic book, how to price translation of captions, where to peddle a book manuscript, how to design bilingual texts, and endless other personal and professional concerns. Aided and abetted by veteran members, two new recruits take up the SWET reporting beat by offering fresh perspectives on these events.

. . . and Later
Following the Indian-style repast of the afternoon on January 25, a nijikai gathering was held in the evening at a separate location. As it turned out, only organizers Hugh Ashton and Bryan Harrell attended both events, which actually ended up being separate parties. A group of eight SWET members, from newcomers to veterans, gathered at Beer Club Popeye in Ryogoku for a few hours of conversation, light food, and tradtionally brewed beer. Harrell, who writes about such beer, helped the uninitiated to make their selections.

Wordsmiths Japan 2006 (Helen Lewis)
Veteran SWET members shared their knowledge and experience in J-E translation, editing, copyediting, copywriting, and writing, and addressed related questions at a SWET on Saturdays event held at Sophia University, entitled “Wordsmiths Japan: SWET Resource Forum 2006.”

Threads on SWET-L

Writing the Right Thing
by Torkil Christensen
SWET-L is the mailing list run by SWET for questions, answers, and ideas about communicating in written English, most often with a Japanese translation slant. Every three months this column gives readers a summary of the many issues appearing there. Herein, fall and early winter 2005.

Book Notes

Introducing Eva Hoffman’s Lost in Translation a not-to-be missed reading gem published some years ago, and Gregory Rabassa’s If This Be Treason: Translation and Its Dyscontents, by a fellow spirit working in other languages, published in 2005.