EVENT

Three women sitting on chairs, participating in a panel discussion or interview, with a microphone and notes in front of them, in a conference room.

Jon Armstrong Photography

A Public Symposium:

Empowering Women’s Voice through translating Japanese fiction: Insights from Translators, Publishers and their Partners 

Date: June 28th Saturday 

Time: 12:30 - 15:30

Place: Diamond Lecture Theatre, The University of Sheffield

Ticket: Free admission, booking is required

Japanese fiction, especially Contemporary Japanese Women’s writing, is experiencing a “boom” in translation. Books such as Convenience Store Woman (2018), Diary of a Void (2023), Butter (2024) and others have become international bestsellers, and a survey by the Booker Prize Foundation states that the sale of Translated Fiction, particularly Japanese fiction, has been on the rise, with an especially great interest from younger generations. How has this “boom” happened, and who created this landscape? Building on successful events with Yuzuki Asako, author of Butter (Off the Shelf), and Eimi Yagi, author of Diary of a Void in Sheffield, this public event sheds light on the work of the literary translators, publishers and their partners in creating and supporting this literary landscape. They will share their insights into the provision and sales of Japanese women’s writing in translation. 

Speakers

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Ginny Tapley Takemori

Translator of Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman, which won the 2020-21 Lindsey and Masao Miyoshi Prize. She has translated dozens of Japanese novels including Kyoko Nakajima’s The Little House and Mayumi Inaba’s Mornings Without Mii. She is a co-founder of Strong Women, Soft Power, a collective of freelance women literary translators.  

A young woman with long brown hair smiling and looking to the side, sitting on a patterned cushion or blanket.

Allison Markin Powell

The PEN Translation Prize winner for her translation of Hiromi Kawakami’s The Ten Loves of Nishino. She also translated Kawakami’s Strange Weather in Tokyo and The Nakano Thrift Shop as well as Black Box by Shiori Ito, among others. She is also a co-founder of Strong Women Soft Power.

A woman with shoulder-length dark hair, dressed in a white shirt, standing in front of a plain light gray background.

Kristen Vida Alfaro 

Director of Tilted Axis Press, an independent publisher that won the 2020 National Book Awards and 2019 TA First Translation Prize for Yu Miri’s Tokyo Ueno Station.

Photo by Jemima Yong

Jane Lawson

Jane Lawson is Publishing Director, Doubleday, an imprint at Penguin Random House, where she has just completed her thirtieth anniversary. Among the books she has acquired and published are Brick Lane; Slumdog Millionaire; The Orphan Master’s Son; The Book Thief; Lessons in Chemistry; The Light Between Oceans; The Five, the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper; Great Circle; Longbourn; the works of Anna Hope, Curtis Sittenfeld, Rosanna Amaka and many others. Her authors’ works have won the Pulitzer Prize, been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the International Booker Prize, the Women’s Prize, the Costa Prize, the George Orwell Prize, and many have been made into Hollywood films. She has a dynamic interest in translation literature, and especially in translated fiction from East and South-east Asia. Some of her Japanese authors include Hiro Arikawa, Mizuki Tsujimura, Michiko Aoyama, Riku Onda, Naoko Higashi, Sonoko Machida and others. She lived in Japan for five years as a child and has nostalgic memories of playing in her neighbourhood of Nakano-Ku, Tokyo. She lives in South-west London.

Junko Takekawa

Studied academically history, art history and arts administration in universities in the UK and Japan, Junko joined the Japan Foundation London in 1998. Since then, she has been involved in the role of organiser, partner and funding executor in great number of Japan related arts and culture projects in the UK, from play readings to visual exhibitions, lectures to seminars including authors’ talks, all of which aim to foster the understanding of Japan and Japanese culture. Her notable achievements include being a guest curator for the Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival 2018, the founder and programmer of the Japan

Sarah Scales

Co-owner of Juno books, independent book seller.PhD in Translation Studies The University of Warwick

A Workshop for Translators:

Call for Aspiring, Early Career and Established Literary Translators Workshop: Strategising Literary Translators Labour

Date: June 27th 2025, Friday

Time: 13:00 - 16:00

Place: The University of Sheffield INOX (TBC)

Ticket: Free admission, booking is required

Close-up of a dictionary page showing the word 'focus' and its definitions

Are you a (literary) translator, or aspiring to be one? You are warmly invited to participate in a workshop with prominent translators (Ginny Tapley Takemori & Allison Markin Powell) and Tilted Axis Director, Kristen Vida Alfaro. This workshop will provide the opportunity for freelance (literary) translators to identify the challenges in relation to their work, and how to strategise for their work and labour, networking, and supporting one another.  

Please submit your application in the short google form from this link. For those who are freelance translators, there are some limited opportunities for financial support for your transport (train, etc), so, if relevant, please indicate your interest for this support upon application (optionally, you can attach your brief CV, a maximum of 2 A4 pages to support this application).