August is Women in Translation Month, which helps to get through what is, for me, the cruelest month. It’s already shaping up to be a banner year for Japanese women writers in translation: 2017 has seen the publication of The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami (and will see the US reissue of Strange Weather in Tokyo–these first two translated by me–and Manazuru, translated by Michael Emmerich, as well as the US release of Record of a Night Too Brief, translated by Lucy North–which is already available in the UK). Others that either have already been published in the US or UK, or will be released later this year are: The Fall of Language in the Age of English and Inheritance from Mother, both by Minae Mizumura and both translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter; Mikumari by Misumi Kubo, translated by Polly Barton; The Girl Who is Getting Married by Aoko Matsuda, translated by Angus Turvill; Time Differences by Yoko Tawada, translated by Jeffrey Angles; Friendship for Grown-Ups by Nao-Cola Yamazaki, translated by Polly Barton; The Great Passage by Shion Miura, translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter; Sea, Land, Shadow by Kazuko Shiraishi, translated by Yumiko Tsumura; Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami, translated by Louise Heal Kawai; Spring Garden by Tomoka Shibasaki, translated by Polly Barton.
And for Women in Translation from languages other than Japanese, more information and event listings can be found here, here, and here. Happy reading!