Monkey Business takes Canada! 9/9, 12, 13

Please join us in Toronto:

Japanese and Canadian Writers:

The Canadian launch of
Monkey Business: New Writing from Japan
International Edition (English language)

Friday, 9 September 2011   6:30 p.m.
at The Japan Foundation, Toronto

Two wide-ranging dialogues celebrating the launch of the English edition of the Japanese literary magazine, Monkey Business International. Featured will be novelists Hiromi Kawakami and Eric McCormack and poets Minoru Ozawa and Rob Winger. The event will be conducted in English and Japanese (with English Interpretation)

Location: The Japan Foundation, Toronto
Address: 131 Bloor Street West, 2nd floor of the Colonnade
            416.966.1600      
Admission: Free
RSVP: www.jftor.org/whatson/rsvp.php or (416) 966-1600 x103

Hiromi Kawakami

Hiromi Kawakami has written nine novels and several short story collections. She won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1996 for Hebi wo Fumu (Tread on a Snake); in 2000 she won the Ito Sei Literature Prize and the Woman Writer's Prize for Oboreru (Drowning); and in 2001 she won the Tanizaki Prize for Sensei no Kaban (The Briefcase), which is being translated by Allison Powell and will be published by Counterpoint Press in 2012. Michael Emmerich's translation of her novel Manazuru was published by Counterpoint in 2010. She writes the serial People from My Neighborhood, a collection of vignettes, for Monkey Business, a part of which appeared in the first English issue of Monkey Business.

Eric McCormack

Eric McCormack came from Scotland to Canada in 1966 and taught literature at St. Jerome's University, Waterloo till his retirement in 2004. His books have been published in a number of languages, most recently Russian and Chinese. His first novel, The Paradise Motel (1989) won the Scottish Council Book Prize. Other works have been short listed for various awards: a story collection, Inspecting the Vaults (Commonwealth Writers Prize, 1987); the novels, First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women(Governor General's Award, 1997) and The Dutch Wife (City of Toronto Book Award, 2002). His stories have been included in such anthologies as The Oxford Book of Canadian Ghost Stories and The Oxford Book of Scottish Short Stories.

Minoru Ozawa

Minoru Ozawa is a leading haiku poet, and edits the highly regarded haiku journal Sawa. He won the Haiku Poet Association New Poet Award with his second collection Ryuuzou (Statue) in 1998; his 2005 collection Shunkan(The Moment) was awarded the Yomiuri Prize for Literature; and Haiku no Hajimaru Basho (Where the Haiku Begins), a book-length essay on the art of haiku, won the Haiku Poet Association Criticism Award. He teaches at Atomi Gakuen Women's University and Waseda University . His haiku on monkeys appeared in the first English issue of Monkey Business.Photo by Masahiro Tanaka

Rob Winger

Rob Winger grew up country in small-town Ontario. His first book,Muybridge's Horse, was named a Globe and Mail Best Book for 2007, and was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award, Ottawa Book Award and Trillium Book Award for Poetry. An active editor and teacher, Rob completed his PhD in literature and cultural studies while writing his second collection, The Chimney Stone (2010), a book of ghazals. Rob and his family live in the hills northeast of Toronto.
Photo by Kristal Davis

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The aforementioned event is part of a series of events organized by the Japan Foundation, in cooperation with other institutions, with the goal of promoting dialogue through literature between Canada and Japan.

Other related events:

Japanese Literature Today

Readings (in Japanese and with English translation) and commentary by four of Japan’s leading literary figures including; haiku poet Minoru Ozawa; novelists Hiromi Kawakami and Hideo Furukawa, and translator/essayist Motoyuki Shibata. For more information, visit www.yorku.ca/ycar or email ycar@yorku.ca.
Monday, 12 September 2011 | 12:30 to 2:30pm | Harry Crowe Room | 109 Atkinson | York University

The Translator and the Novelist: Japanese Literature After Fukushima 

A dialogue between noted translator Motoyuki Shibata and Hideo Furukawa, one of Japan’s hottest young novelists. Novelist Hiromi Kawakami and haiku master Minoru Ozawa wi ll provide further comments. For more information, visit www.jccc.on.ca/ or email jccc@jccc.on.ca.
Tuesday, 13 September 2011 | 7pm | Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre | 6 Garamond Court | Toronto
Tickets $10 for JCCC Members, $12 for non-members +HST