Sawako Nakayasu will be sharing her translations of the short, haiku-like poems by the Japanese poet Kawata Ayane, as well as her translations of the modernist poet Sagawa Chika. Sagawa’s poetry in English translation is forthcoming in a reprint edition in the Penguin Modern Library series in 2020. Nakayasu will also read excerpts from her two forthcoming books, Pink Waves (Omnidawn, 2020), and Some Girls Walk Into The Country They Are From (Wave Books, 2021).
Sawako Nakayasu is an artist working with language, performance, and translation – separately and in various combinations. Her books include The Ants (Les Figues Press), Texture Notes (Letter Machine Editions), and the translation of The Collected Poems of Chika Sagawa (Canarium Books), as well as Mouth: Eats Color – Sagawa Chika Translations, Anti-translations, & Originals (Rogue Factorial), a multilingual work of both original and translated poetry. She is co-editor of A Transpacific Poetics (Litmus Press), a gathering of poetry and poetics engaging transpacific imaginaries, as well as of a forthcoming anthology of 20th Century Japanese Poetry, co-edited with Eric Selland (New Directions). Also forthcoming is a new book of poetry, Some Girls Walk Into The Country They Are From (Wave Books). She teaches at Brown University.
This event takes place in the Digital Commons, 101 Cooper Street, behind Johnson Park. View a map of how to arrive at the Commons from the main campus here.
About the Nick Virgilio Performance Series: Founded to honor Nick Virgilio (1928-1989), a Camden-based poet who worked primarily in English-language haiku, this series features authors who work at the intersection of the page and performance, with influences from haiku or other Japanese poetic traditions.
Date & Time
February 26, 2020
7:00 pm-8:30 pm