Michael Emmerich and Ted Goossen join us to discuss their work translating from the Japanese.
Michael Emmerich has translated novels by Banana Yoshimoto, Hiromi Kawakami, Rieko Matsuura, and Yasunari Kawabata, as well as editing and translating two collections of contemporary Japanese short stories, Short Stories in Japanese and Read Real Japanese Fiction. He received the 2010 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for a Translation of Japanese Literature, for his translation of Hiromi Kawakami's Manazuru. He is currently assistant professor of Premodern Japanese Literature and Cultural Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara, where his research is focused on translations of The Tale of Genji.
Ted Goossen is a translator and professor of modern and contemporary Japanese literature at York University, Canada. He has translated a number of Japanese writers, including Naoya Shiga, Masuji Ibuse, and Haruki Murakami. With Motoyuki Shibata, he edits Monkey Business, a journal of new writing from Japan which has recently featured an interview with Haruki Murakami, a new story from Yoko Ogawa, manga by the Brother and Sister Nishioka, and much more.