Yes, not necessarily newsworthy but…interesting I think all the same: 77-year old veteran sci-fi great Tsutsui Yasutaka, author of Paprika, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Salmonella Men on Planet Porno, etc., has written a light novel entitled ビアンカ・オーバースタディ (“Bianca Overstudy”), Da Vinci reports. It’s a slapstick comedy about a beautiful high school girl...
Read more →The Japan Times has a great article about the struggles of the rushed to market Kobo Touch, and the ever-distant threat of Amazon Kindle.
Read more →For those of you interested in literary translation: Over at the blog for the YA anthology Tomo: Friendship through Fiction: An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories are two translations of Miyzawa Kenji’s famous poem 雨ニモマケズ, and a Q&A with each translator on the choices they made and the experience of translating the poem itself....
Read more →The Asahi reports that publishing giant Shogakukan, who turns 90 this year, is embracing the e-revolution, and as part of their new (forced, desperate) love for e-books, the company will be issuing a Kobo Touch e-reader to every person of their 777 member staff.
Read more →Six previously unpublished short stories by the late novelist Ogawa Kunio were discovered in an old cardboard box in his basement, the Asahi reports. The stories were primarily ones written before he became famous as a writer as practice pieces. Though sadly no work of his is available in English, Ogawa was a notable...
Read more →Reading Michael Emmerich’s introduction in this month’s Words Without Borders has brought to my attention ANOTHER book to be added to the list; this time it’s Nonami Asa’s short story collection Body, published by Vertical Inc. Vertical has published Nonami before, and interestingly enough, “each of the five stories in Body gets its title...
Read more →Just another reminder that the August issue of Words Without Borders features New Writing From Japan: Part II. Edited and with an introduction once again by Michael Emmerich, this issue features the ordinary instead of the extraordinary, like Part I in July. It features work by the Akutagawa Award winning authors Kanai Mieko and...
Read more →Fellow Japanese literary blogger Nihon Distractions has once again keyed me into many more Japanese literary releases coming out later this year, and the List has been updated accordingly. We have six new titles, including a biography and two books of poetry. Already past is a Komatsu Sakyo Award- winning sci-fi novel by Urahama...
Read more →Showing a somewhat progressive attitude to the forthcoming onslaught of e-books, publisher Chuokoron has started offering 100-yen e-books of single, stand-alone short stories by popular authors, the Yomiuri reports.
Read more →The Asahi reports that the final adjustments are being made in contracts between Amazon Japan and major publishing houses Shinchosha and the Kadokawa group, which reveal an estimated e-book store launch date of late August or early September. Kodansha is also reportedly in their final negotiations. And once e-books are for sale, the the...
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