Yoko Danno, Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, and Keiji Minato will discuss writing in both English and Japanese, translating and publishing poetry, and will also read their poetry.

Date: Sunday 17th May 2009 3PM - 5 PM
Location: Venture Dream Office 2nd Floor Meeting Room (2 mins from Hankyu Karasuma Stn and Subway Shijo Stn)
Fee: members 500 yen/non-members 1,000 yen
Reservations: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Yoko will talk about why she started writing poetry in English more than forty years ago, and how she became interested in the roots and beginnings of Japanese culture and literature, especially the customs, imagery, thoughts and feelings of the folklore recorded in the Fudoki and the Kojiki compiled in the 8th century. Yoko will read some of her poems and translations.

Jane will discuss some of the influences on her writing, which include the work of other poets, philosophers, visual artists, as well pop culture and current events, and some of the techniques (especially “cinematic” ones) she uses for constructing poems. She will also touch on her experiences teaching poetry in Japan and writing for publication. Jane will read and/or distribute some of her poems.

While Keiji nurtures an interest in both conventional and non-conventional poetry, he thinks that his relationship with foreign cultures and languages has brought him back to traditional forms such as haiku, senryu, and tanka. Keiji will talk about his recent experience of co-editing a haiku issue of Australia-based e-zine Cordite. How do non-Japanese and Japanese writers respond to haiku in global cyber space? Keiji will share some of his poems and translations.

Speaker Profiles:
Yoko Danno was born, raised and educated in Japan. A graduate of Kobe College, all of her poems and translations (except Peking Story by David Kidd, which she translated into Japanese) have been written in English. She has published several chapbooks and books of poetry including Four Songs (1982, reprinted in the International Anthology of Poetry and Prose 47, New Directions, New York, 1983), trilogy (1970, 2004), Hagoromo: A Celestial Robe (1984, 2004), Dusty Mirror (1977), all published by The Ikuta Press, Kobe, and Epitaph for memories (The Bunny and Crocodile Press, Washington D.C., 2002) and The Blue Door (in collaboration with James C. Hopkins, (The Word Works, Washington D.C., 2006). Other works include Songs and Stories of the Kojiki (Ahadada Books, Tokyo/Toronto, 2008) and an experimental work, A Sleeping Tiger Dreams of Manhattan: simultaneous poetry, photographs and sound by Yoko Danno, James C. Hopkins & Bernard Stoltz (The Ikuta Press, 2008).

Jane Joritz-Nakagawa is a long time resident of Japan originally from the USA. Her most recent poetry book is “Exhibit C” (Ahadada, 2008). Her previous two books of poetry are Aquiline (2007) and Skin Museum (2006). Jane teaches courses in poetry, pedagogy, gender, and other subjects at Aichi University of Education where she works as Associate Professor. Jane’s primary research interest is the relationship of feminism to avant-garde poetry by women. Well over a hundred of Jane’s poems, as well as numerous essays, academic papers and interviews, have been published in international literary journals in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Japan. She is currently finalizing her fourth book of poems.

Born in Osaka in 1973, Keiji Minato has published a book of poetry, ????????? [Glass Eye / Cloth Skin] (???? [Sogenshisha], 2003). As a scholar of literature in English, he has written essays, mainly about Australian literature, for magazines such as ??? [Subaru] and ???? [Eigo Seinen]” and translated short stories in ?????????? [Diamond Dog]” (????? [Gendaikikakushitsu], 2008), an anthology of recent Australian writers. Keiji is one of three members of a Kyoto-based experimental poetry group, the Experimental Language Factory. He recently edited the “haikunaut” issue for Australia-based e-zine Cordite.