The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (FCCJ) has announced that on Thursday, June 5, 2014, it will hold a Book Break with Leza Lowitz and Shogo Oketani, who will discuss their book, Jet Black and the Ninja Wind, winner of the 2013-2014 Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature. The event will start at 6:15 p.m.

In the book, Jet’s tale connects the Emishi tribe of Tohoku with the story of the Navajo Code Talkers, challenging the stereotypes of docile Japanese women and ninja as B-grade assassins. They make their first foray into young adult fiction with a compulsively readable tale whose teenage heroine must discover if she can put the blade above the heart--or die trying.

Liza Dalby, a noted American geisha anthoropologist and specialist on Japanese culture, says "Jet Black & The Ninja Wind spins the reader through history, legend, Buddhism, and modern Japan. A visual experience akin to watching an epic thriller film. Five stars!"

Publishers Weekly also says "In this meticulously researched adventure, the husband-and-wife team of Oketani and Lowitz evoke the atmosphere and richness of Japanese culture and mythology. The physical descriptions are lush, the action sequences almost cinematic, and the details are steeped in authenticity.”

School Library Journal comments that the book “is akin to a teen Da Vinci Code with ninjas; the high-stakes plot is woven with layers of mythology, intrigue, and romance.”

Some couples finish each other’s sentences; Lowitz and Oketani finish each other’s books. They’ve published over 20 books between them and have worked together professionally as editors and translators for Lucasfilm, Hitachi, etc.

Leza Lowitz is a former lecturer at the University of Tokyo. She’s written for The New York Times online, The Huffington Post, Shambhala Sun, and The Japan Times. She’s received the PEN Josephine Miles Poetry Award, the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award, and NEA/NEH grants. She was also editor of Donald Richie’s Japan Journals.

Shogo Oketani is author of J-Boys: Kazuo’s World, Tokyo, 1965, co-author of Designing with Kanji, and co-translator of America and Other Poems by Ayukawa Nobuo, for which he received the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Award. Oketani was adjunct professor of translation at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan library committee is offering a cocktail party--"Meet the Author"--starting at 6:15 p.m., followed by dinner at 6:45 p.m. (menu to be decided). Drinks can be ordered on a cash basis from the bar in the room. Book Break charges 2,000 yen (including tax) for the event. Non-members eligible to attend may pay in cash.

Sign up now at the reception desk (03-3211-3161) or on the FCCJ website. To help the FCCJ plan proper seating and food preparation, please reserve in advance, preferably by noon of the day of the event. Those without reservations will be turned away once available seats are filled. Reservations cancelled less than 24 hours in advance will be charged in full.

Text courtesy of the Library Committee of the FCCJ

 

社団法人 日本外国特派員協会
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan
100-0006 Japan, Tokyo-to, Chiyoda-ku, Yurakucho 1-7-1, Yurakucho Denki North Building 20F
http://www.fccj.or.jp E-mail: front@fccj.or.jp Tel:+81-3-3211-3161 Fax:+81-3-3211-3168