Judging
Committee
Contemporary Literature Category／English
-
Kendall Heitzman
Translator of Japanese literature, Associate Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture, Chair of Asian and Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Iowa - Earned Ph.D. from Yale University. His translation of Fujino Kaori’s Nails and Eyes (Pushkin Press, 2023) was awarded the Japan–United States Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. He is the author of Enduring Postwar: Yasuoka Shōtarō and Literary Memory in Japan (Vanderbilt University Press, 2019). He has translated pieces by a number of Japanese participants in the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, including the fiction writers Takiguchi Yūshō and Ri Kotomi and the poet Okamoto Kei. His translations have appeared in venues such as Cha and the US–Japan Women’s Journal, and his translations of work by Furukawa Hideo appear in recent issues of the literary journal Monkey. He has translations forthcoming from Penguin UK, Stone Bridge Press, and Pushkin Press.
©新潮社
-
Konosu Yukiko
Translator of English-language literature, Literary Critic -
Born in Tokyo in 1963. Konosu Yukiko is a translator of English literature and a literary critic. She received the Newcomer Prize of the BABEL International Translation Award in 1995 and the BABEL International Translation Award in the Mystery category in 1998 for her translation of The Chatham School Affair by Thomas H. Cook. She has dedicated herself to introducing contemporary literature in English while also focusing on new translations of classical literature, with her translated works exceeding over a hundred titles.
Her notable translations include Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, Gone with the Wind (five volumes) by Margaret Mitchell, and To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. She has also translated Disgrace, The Childhood of Jesus, and The Schooldays of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee; The Blind Assassin, The Testaments, Burning Questions, and Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood; Small Things Like These by Clare Keegan; and The Hill We Climb and Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman.
In addition to translation, Konosu has authored numerous works on literary criticism and translation studies, such as “Meiji Taisho Honyaku Wonderland”, “Jukusei suru Monogataritachi”, “Nazotoki ‘Kaze to Tomo ni Sarinu’”, and “Bungaku wa Yogensuru”. Her other publications include “Zenshin Honyakuka”, “Honyakutte Nandaro”, and “Honyaku Kyoshitsu Hajime no Ippo”.
Over the years, Konosu has taught translation at Aoyama Gakuin University and other institutions, mentoring aspiring translators. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Japan Writers' Association; a Board Member of the Setagaya Arts Foundation; and a committee member for the Japan P.E.N. Club, addressing issues concerning imprisoned writers, human rights, and women writers.
-
Stephen Snyder
Translator of Japanese Literature, Dean of Language Schools and Vice President for Academic Affairs; Professor of Japanese Studies, Interim President, Middlebury College - Born in 1957. Earned Ph.D. from Yale University. He is the author of Fictions of Desire: Narrative Form in the Novels of Nagai Kafu and co-editor of Oe and Beyond: Fiction in Contemporary Japan. He has translated contemporary Japanese novels by Yoko Ogawa, Kenzaburo Oe, Ryu Murakami, Yu Miri, Kotaro Isaka, to name a few. He also published his translation of Rivalry: A Geisha's Tale by Nagai Kafu and Ashura Girl by Otaro Maijo under JLPP. His translation of Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa was shortlisted for the 2019 National Book Award for Translated Literature and the 2020 International Booker Prize.
Classical Literature Category／English
-
Janine Beichman
Scholar and translator of Japanese Literature, Professor Emeritus at Daito Bunka University - Scholar, translator, poet. PhD, Columbia University. Professor Emerita, Daito Bunka University. Author of the Nō play Drifting Fires. Books include Masaoka Shiki: His Life and Works, Embracing the Firebird: Yosano Akiko and the Birth of the Female Voice in Modern Japanese Poetry, and Poems for All Seasons, her translation of Ōoka Makoto's anthology of 1000 years of Japanese poetry. Her translation of Ōoka Makoto's own poems, Beneath the Sleepless Tossing of the Planets: Selected Poems, received the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. Her most recent books are Well-Versed: Exploring Modern Japanese Haiku, a translation of “Meiku no yuen” by the haiku poet Minoru Ozawa (2021) and This Overflowing Light: Rin Ishigaki Selected Poems (2022). Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and America PEN.
-
Peter MacMillan
Translator of Japanese literature, poet - Born in Ireland. After graduating from the National University of Ireland, Peter MacMillan went on to earn a Ph.D. in English literature in the U.S. He is currently a part-time lecturer at the University of Tokyo, a visiting professor at Sagami Women's University, and Musashino University. He was appointed the first cultural lecturer in JICA Chair in 2022. His English translation of Hyakunin Isshu was published in 2008 and won the Donald Keene Center Special Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature from the Donald Keene Center for Japanese Studies and the 44th Special Cultural Translation Prize from the Japan Society of Translators. Penguin Books published his English translation of Ise Monogatari in 2016 and Hyakunin Isshu (New Translation) in 2018. His many books in Japan include Reading the Japanese Classics in English, Savoring the Manyoshu in English, and Traveling with Matsuo Basho. He also appears on NHK WORLD-JAPAN's Magical Japanese and on KBS Kyoto's Sarapin! Kyoto . He was the teacher for the famous NHK program 100 Pun de meicho in 2024 and in the same year was awarded the Foreign Minister’s Commendations and the Order of the Rising Sun in the autumn honors.
-
Meredith McKinney
Translator of classical, early modern, and contemporary Japanese Literature, Honorary Associate Professor at the Australian National University - Meredith McKinney earned her PhD in classical Japanese literature from the Australian National University. After living in Japan for around twenty years, she returned to Australia where she now lives near a small country town in New South Wales. She has published over twenty translations. These include classics such as The Pillow Book, Hōjōki and Essays in Idleness; Kokoro and Kusamakura by Natsume Sōseki; and works by modern writers Furui Yoshikichi, Shimada Masahiko and Tanabe Seiko. She won the Japan-US Friendship Commission Prize for Furui Yoshikichi's Ravine and Other Stories. A Tale Unasked, her translation of Towazugatari, will be published by Penguin Classics in 2025. Meredith is currently an Honorary Associate Professor at the Australian National University.
-
Moriyama Megumi
Poet, translator and critic - Born in Tokyo, Moriyama Megumi is a poet, English haiku poet, critic, and translator. She is the author of four full-length books of poetry, including Tangible Dreams (Yume no tezawari, 2005) and Green Zone (Midori no ryobun), which were composed for choir pieces, performed and published. Moriyama had been selected as a New Poet by Gendaishi-techo, and her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She has recently co-translated the full text of Arthur Waley's The Tale of Genji and has won the 2020 Donald Keene Special Award, and has appeared as a guest lecturer in NHK TV series “100分de名著: Waley’s Tale of Genji”. Her recent works include the critical essay Lady Murasaki’s Tea Party: The Tale of Genji in Spiral Translation and the translation of Virginia Woolf's The Waves.