June 30, 2015

Phyllis Birnbaum: Another gripping biography

Novelist, biographer, journalist, editor and translator Phyllis Birnbaum is based in Watertown, Massachusetts. Her publications include Modern Girls, Shining Stars, the Skies of Tokyo: Five Japanese Women and a biography, Glory in a Line: A Life of Foujita—the Artist Caught Between East and West. She recently edited the English translation of Clouds Above the Hill: A Historical Novel of the Russo-Japanese War. An article on the SWET website brings together comments from the group that worked on that project. Her latest work, Manchu Princess, Japanese Spy: The Story of Kawashima Yoshiko, the Cross-Dressing Spy Who Commanded Her Own Army, was published by Columbia University Press this spring. 

Birnbaum answered questions about the book in the Japan Times and for the Columbia University Press blog.