Join the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, an International Programs affinity group, for an evening of bilingual readings! At 8 p.m., members of the Iowa Japanese Program’s Workshop in Japanese Literary Translation will read with poet Yotsumoto Yasuhiro and fiction writer Li Kotomi, both members of the 2023 International Writing Program (IWP). At 9 p.m., we will go live with a group of Japanese poets and translators at Waseda University in Tokyo, with performances by select IWP poets and special guest Japanese poet Suga Keijirō.

This event connects Japanese program student translators with IWP writers and poets and translators in Japan. Our audience has an opportunity to hear Japanese poems and stories in English for the first time anywhere.
Event co-sponsored by the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, International Programs, the International Writing Program, and the Department of Asian and Slavic Languages.

Featuring the following authors:

Yotsumoto Yasuhiro was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1959, and grew up in Hiroshima. He is the author of 15 books of poetry, two novels, and several translations. He organizes the monthly gathering Poetry Talks Live, usually held in Tokyo.
 
Li Kotomi, born in Taiwan and now resident in Japan, is the author of the Akutagawa Prize-winning novel Higanbana ga saku shima (The Island Where Red Spider Lilies Bloom, 2021) and the novel Sei o iwau (Celebrate Life, 2021).
 
Suga Keijirō is a Japanese poet and critic who has performed around the globe. A professor of critical theory at Meiji University, he is currently a visiting faculty member at the University of Minnesota.