David Karashima

How did a loner destined for a niche domestic audience become one of the most famous writers alive? A rare look inside the making of the "Murakami Industry"--and a thought-provoking exploration of the role of translators and editors in the creation of global literary culture. Thirty years ago, when Haruki Murakami's works were first being translated, they were part of a series of pocket-sized English-learning guides released only in Japan. Today his books are in fifty languages and have won prizes and sold millions of copies globally. How did a loner destined for a niche domestic audience become one of the most famous writers alive? This book tells one key part of the story. Its cast includes an expat trained in art history who never intended to become a translator; a Chinese-American ex-academic who never planned to work as an editor; and other publishing professionals in New York, London, and Tokyo who together introduced a pop-inflected, unexpected Japanese voice to the wider literary world. David Karashima synthesizes research, correspondence, and interviews with dozens of individuals--including Murakami himself--to examine how countless behind-the-scenes choices over the course of many years worked to build an internationally celebrated author's persona and oeuvre. He looks beyond the "Murakami Industry" toward larger questions: How active a role should translators and editors play in framing their writers' texts? What does it mean to translate and edit "for a market"? How does Japanese culture get packaged and exported for the West?

Who We're Reading When We're Reading Murakami

Elmer Luke

11th March 2011. An earthquake occurring off the northeastern coast of Japan - magnitude 9.0, duration six minutes - triggers a 50-foot tsunami that within fifteen minutes has slammed its way ashore, rushing inland six miles, tossing and crushing all in its path - roads, airports, villages, trains, and buses - leaving a trail of death and destruction and causing the slow, inexorable leak of radiation from five nuclear plants. The aftershocks, literal and metaphorical, from this disaster are still reverberating in Japan, and around the globe. The complex elements of this tragic and horrifying event raise questions for all of us who live in the modern world. The writers in this collection seek to explore the impact of this catastrophe through a variety of different means. Their reactions range from stories by young Japanese writers to pieces by more established commentators and authors. This book stands as a record of artistic response from across cultures and generations, even as it contributes in small measure to the charities that are on the ground in Japan, helping the people and communities trying to rebuild their lives.

Writers Respond to Japan's Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Meltdown

March was Made of Yarn

Royalties from the sale of this book will go to charities working towards the reconstruction of north-eastern Japan. 11th March 2011. An earthquake occurring off the north-eastern coast of Japan - magnitude 9.0, duration six minutes - unleashed a 50-foot tsunami that within fifteen minutes had slammed its way ashore, rushing inland six miles, crushing all in its path - roads, airports, villages, trains, and buses - and triggering the slow, inexorable leak of radiation from five nuclear plants. This was just the beginning. The waves did not stop; nor did the aftershocks, which were themselves rolling earthquakes of terrifying magnitude. Nor did the danger from radiation, which was controlled incrementally, until the meltdown began. One year on, the overwhelming sense of loss endures. Life goes on, but life is not the same. The writers in this collection seek to explore the impact of this catastrophe through a variety of different means. The pieces - fiction and non-fiction, poetry and manga - reconceive the events of that day, imagine a future and a past, interpret dreams, impel purpose, pray for hope. Specific in reference, universal in scope, these singular, heartfelt contributions - by Yoko Ogawa, Ryu Murakami, Yoko Tawada, Kazumi Saeki and David Peace, among others - comprise an artistic record of a disaster which raises questions for all of us who live in the modern world.

Writers respond to Japan's Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Meltdown

March Was Made of Yarn

Yuka Igarashi

Makoto Ichikawa

Everyone knows this country and no one knows it. This issue presents twenty new Japans by its writers and artists, and by residents and visitors and neighbours. A special edition of Granta published simultaneously in Japanese and English.

Japan

In time for the one year anniversary of the 2011 earthquake in Japan, a collection of essays and stories by Japanese writers on the devastating disaster, its aftermath, and the resolve of a people to rebuild. On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake occurred off the northeastern coast of Japan, triggering a 50-foot tsunami that crushed everything in its path—highways, airports, villages, trains, and buses—leaving death and destruction behind, and causing a major radiation leak from five nuclear plants. Here eighteen writers give us their trenchant observations and emotional responses to such a tragedy, in what is a fascinating, enigmatic and poignant collection.

David Karashima

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