The Akutagawa reports that Shibata Toyo, who suddenly became a phenomenally popular and bestselling poet in her 90s, has passed away at 101. Her publishing career started just three years ago at 98, when she took up writing poetry privately as a hobby by her son when old age kept from her love of...
Read more →As widely reported, 75-year old Kuroda Natsuko has won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for her work「ａｂさんご」and is thus the oldest person to ever win the prize. I’ll be honest and say that when the shortlist was announced, I cynically assumed that she would win simply because of the sensationalism inherent in her “record-breaking” age....
Read more →This is a few weeks old now, but in case you missed it: the Yomiuri reports that this year a surprisingly bountiful number of authors’ works enters the public domain this year, including famed historical fiction writer Yoshikawa Eiji of Musashi fame. Other authors include Saisei Muro, Kunio Yanagita, Hakucho Masamune, and Dakotsu Iida....
Read more →Congratulations to Kawakami Hiromi for being on the five book shortlist for this year’s Man Asian Literary Prize! Her competition: Between Clay and Dust – Musharraf Ali Farooqi (Pakistan) Silent House – Orhan Pamuk (Turkey) The Garden of Evening Mists – Tan Twan Eng (Malaysia) Narcopolis – Jeet Thayil (India) The winner will receive...
Read more →Another year, another batch of Akutagawa and Naoki Prize winners! The Asahi points out in their report that there are a couple interesting nominees this year. One Akutagawa finalist, Kuroda Natsuko, is a first time finalist at 75 years old; if she won, she would be the oldest winner in the prize’s history. On...
Read more →Publishing Perspectives reports that Apple will soon (within the month of January, reportedly) be offering 80,000 e-books for sale in their iBookstore from major publishers Kodansha, Kadokawa, Shogakukan, and the like. Probably more or less the same books offered by Kobo and Amazon (it was only a few months ago when they had 50,000,...
Read more →Yes, the year’s end is fast approaching, which means that year’s end lists are popping up faster than the weeds in your garden in spring. Today we’ll focus on Tohan’s bestseller list for new release fiction, inevitably released in tankoubon format, before it goes to the cheap pocket sized bunkobon. 舟を編む (“Gather the Boats”),...
Read more →The Mainichi Shimbun reports that the finalists for the Oda Sakunosuke Prize have been announced. They are: Aoyama Nanae, すみれ (“Violet”) Ishii Shinji, ある一日 (“One Day”) Ekuni Kaori, 犬とハモニカ (“The Dog and the Harmonica”) Kubo Misumi, 晴天の迷いクジラ (“Lost Whale on a Fine Day”) Tanaka Shin’ya, 夜蜘蛛 (“The Night Spider”) Organized by the Mainichi Shimbun,...
Read more →Let’s recap: Just over two weeks ago, Amazon finally launched the Kindle store in Japan. One week after that announcement, the Asahi reported that both Sony and Rakuten Kobo cut the prices of their e-readers. The Sony E-Reader PRS G-1, which is Wi-Fi and 3G enabled, was cut to 10,800 yen, a not insignificant...
Read more →I took just a quick enough break reading about other things happening in the US right now to see via the Asahi that Yamada Amy has won the prestigious Noma Literary Prize for her novel 「ジェントルマン」(“Gentleman”). A big name in Japan but relatively under-translated in America, Yamada only has Trash and Bedtime Eyes, as...
Read more →The most recent addition to the List for 2012 is the first Japanese title from Amazon’s publishing imprint for translation AmazonCrossing, a short story collection by Taguchi Randy called Fujisan. From Amazon: From acclaimed Japanese author Randy Taguchi come four unforgettable stories of redemption, discovery, loss, and remembrance anchored by one of the world’s...
Read more →The Yomiuri reports that due to finances drying up and the aging of the executive board who run it, the Ito Sei Literary Prize will end in 2014, with their 25th set of winners. Starting in 1990 and run by Otaru City in Hokkaido, the Ito Sei Literary Prize awarded a prize in both...
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