Japan Foundation LA
When:
March 4th, 2015
7PM
Where:
The Japan Foundation
5700 Wilshire Blvd. # 100
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Japanese Literature in this Decade:

 How a Smaller World Leads to More Literature We Can All Enjoy 

Wednesday, March 4, 7PM 

Venue:
The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles
 (5700 Wilshire Blvd. # 100, Los Angeles, CA 90036)

Admission: Free

Street parking is available near JFLA.   Click Here for Parking info

(NO PARKING VALIDATIONS PROVIDED)  

In this age of instant access via the internet to content, Japanese literature has become easier than ever to enjoy. While in the past it was often said that Japanese authors existed in a kind of bubble cut off from the rest of the world, presumably due to the fact that relatively few Japanese novels were translated into other languages, Japanese literature has enjoyed a wider readership in recent years thanks in special part to internationally successful writers such as Haruki Murakami. Literary expert and translator Motoyuki Shibata's Monkey Business, an annual literary journal available in both Japanese and English which features the writings of modern Japanese authors as well as British and American authors, has contributed to this spread and increasing popularity of Japanese literature across borders. On March 4th, Motoyuki Shibata and acclaimed Japanese author Tomoka Shibasaki will discuss many topics surrounding modern Japanese literature.

 The evening will also include a reading by Tomoka Shibasaki from her work.  

Lecturers: Motoyuki Shibata, Tomoka Shibasaki
 
Motoyuki Shibata is a gifted author, translator, and American literature and literary translation professor at the University of Tokyo who has been building literary bridges for years now through his annual literary journal Monkey Business

, a journal available in both Japanese and English which focuses on Japanese writing today but also solicits contributions from American and British writers. In addition to numerous books of essays, he has published translations of works by Paul Auster, Rebecca Brown, Stuart Dybek, Kelly Link, Steven Millhauser, Richard Powers, Thomas Pynchon, Charles Simic, Mark Twain, Steve Erickson, and others.  

Tomoka Shibasaki  was born in Osaka and began writing fiction while still in high school. After graduating from university, she took an office job but continued writing, managing to get onto the shortlist for the Bungei Prize in 1998. Publication in a magazine of her short story  Reddo, Iero, Orenji, Buru (Red, Yellow, Orange, Blue)  the following year marked her debut in print. Her first book,  Kyo no dekigoto (A Day on the Planet,  2000 ) , was turned into a hit movie, thrusting her into the limelight as an author. She is known for novels and stories that capture the sensibilities of young women living in cities. Winner of the Oda Sakunosuke Prize and the Noma New Writers' Award among others, she is the recipient of the 2014 Akutagawa Prize, the most prestigious literary award in Japan. Her books include  Asleep or Awake  (2010),  Viridian  (2011), and  In the City Where I Was Not  (2012). 

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