Waseda Translation Workshop

In March of 2023, I was fortunate enough to attend a workshop for emerging literary translators hosted by Waseda University at the Haruki Murakami Library. Veteran translator Ginny Tapley Takemori lead our 10-person cohort on a 3-day journey to complete the thrilling yet arduous task of translating one short story by author Sayaka Murata as a group. We were incredibly honored to have Murata-san herself attend portions of the workshop, and I certainly took shameless advantage to ask her questions about how her life has changed since Convenience Store Woman became an international bestseller. (It turns out, she lost her real-life job working at a convenience store because of her new fame! The managers were tired of customers coming in for an autograph.) I learned an incredible amount from my peers, our wonderful organizers, and a few surprise guest speakers.

If you're interested in hearing more, check out this article fellow attendee Yuki Tejima wrote for the National Centre for Writing.