Asian Festival of Children’s Content 2016 to Feature Japan

The next Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC)—set for May 25–29, 2016, in Singapore—will feature Japan as Country of Focus. A slate of speakers from Japan will offer sessions in a full program rarely seen even within Japan.

SCBWI will introduce AFCC at an event in Tokyo on November 9, 2015. Of Asia and Children’s Books: The 2016 Asian Festival of Children’s Content will feature AFCC Chair Claire Chiang, who will describe the festival. Vice Director of the Chihiro Art Museum Yuko Takesako will present the 2016 Country of Focus: Japan offerings. Finally, Australian author Ken Spillman, Philippines-based agent Andrea Pasion-Flores, and Brunei Darussalam Library Association President Nellie Sunny will give a taste of AFCC with a panel on children’s books and publishing in Asia.

All with an interest in Asian children’s content are welcome, regardless of ability to attend AFCC.

For further reading, write-ups of past AFCCs by SCBWI Japan members are here:

AFCC 2015: SCBWI Japan blog post and SCBWI Japan Translation Group blog post

AFCC 2014: SCBWI Japan Translation Group blog series

AFCC 2013: Carp Tales Spring 2013 issue, pp. 5–7 (PDF)

AFCC 2012: Carp Tales Summer 2012 issue, p. 11 (PDF)

AFCC 2011: Carp Tales Spring/Summer 2011 issue, p. 11 (PDF)

AFCC 2010, inaugural conference: Carp Tales Spring/Summer 2010 issue, p. 13 (PDF)

To reserve a place for the November 9 event, please email japan(at)scbwi.org by November 8.

 

 

 

SCBWI LA 2014: A Translator’s View

By Avery Fischer Udagawa, Bangkok

Last month I attended the 2014 SCBWI Summer Conference in Los Angeles, thanks to a generous Tribute Fund Scholarship. I soaked up info from keynote speeches, panel discussions, break-out sessions, intensives, a manuscript critique, and socials, and talked up translation and the SCBWI Japan Translation Group.

Theme Building, Los Angeles International Airport

Children’s Book People Everywhere!

This conference was a meet-up of 1,235 children’s book people at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, Los Angeles.

The first person I met was my roommate, illustrator and fellow Tribute Fund recipient Marsha Riti of Austin, Texas. This piece of hers shows how excited I felt!

“Feisty Tricycle” by Marsha Riti

I soon also met up with friends whom I see too rarely in Asia, beginning with SCBWI Japan Regional Advisor Holly Thompson.

Translator Avery Fischer Udagawa, writer Holly Thompson, writer Li-Hsin Tu, illustrator Kazumi Wilds

One of many delights of SCBWI LA was the International Social for members of all non-US regions worldwide. Special thanks to International Regional Advisor Chairperson Kathleen Ahrens of Hong Kong, Assistant International Advisor Angela Cerrito of Germany, and International Awards and Publications Coordinator Christopher Cheng of Australia. It was a bonus delight to connect with Kenneth Quek of Singapore, Director of the Asian Festival of Children’s Content!

Oodles of Opportunities

I met few translators in LA. 😦 On the upside, I found many chances to study craft and ask how to publish more translations. To quote my bit of SCBWI Japan’s blog coverage, I valued . . .

Chances to improve my work: I took part in a one-on-one manuscript critique with SCBWI President Stephen Mooser, who has authored more than 60 children’s books. He reviewed the first ten pages of my middle grade novel translation as writing in English, providing feedback on how I could improve my language. I also took a half-day intensive on novel revision with Linda Sue Park, a Newbery Award-winning author. From her I learned several ways to make a completed draft “strange” to myself, in order to spot where to streamline the language. Every segment of her intensive applied both to writing and to translation.

Opportunities to ask editors how they acquire translations: I attended break-out sessions by Alessandra Balzer, co-publisher of Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books; Mary Lee Donovan, editorial director at Candlewick Press; Dinah Stevenson, publisher of Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; and Julie Strauss-Gabel of Dutton Children’s Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group. Each of these editors fielded a question about how/whether she considers works in translation and how these might be submitted. So did Arthur Levine of Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., and Andrea Welch, senior editor at Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Andrea’s half-day intensive on picture books exposed me to numerous new ideas, and again applied 100 percent to translations.

Discovery while jet lagged: Source text + bobby pin + laptop = setup to prevent over-editing a first draft

 

Time to network with members of the We Need Diverse Books Campaign: The We Need Diverse Books campaign took the US children’s lit world by storm in May, showing the need for main characters of color and of diverse cultural backgrounds (among many kinds of diversity). Since translations are a source of diversity, I was thrilled to talk with authors Lamar Giles and Meg Medina, leaders in the We Need Diverse Books initiative. I also hung out at a We Need Diverse Books lunchtime chat and heard a panel by Lamar Giles, Meg Medina, Linda Sue Park, authors Sharon Flake and Suzanne Morgan Williams, and agent Adriana Dominguez. Their discussion galvanized me to bring more books from overseas to young readers. Kids deserve to explore stories from their whole world!

I got my button!

US Children’s Publishing in Microcosm

SCBWI LA was my best glimpse to date of the US children’s publishing world. This was partly due to “state of the industry” keynotes that detailed trends in the US market—noting, for example, that picture books are aiming younger as chapter books take off, or that contemporary realistic YA fiction still has a place, or that literary MG novels are in demand. (Hooray!)

I heard these updates and more in presentations by Justin Chanda, vice president and publisher of three Simon & Schuster children’s imprints, and Deborah Halverson, editor of SCBWI’s detailed and ever-evolving Market Survey. While neither of these speakers mentioned translations, both spoke to the need for diverse books and provided big-picture info useful to translators.

I also got an overview by looking around in the socials and sessions at this large conference, and seeing how many US authors there are. This conference was larger than one small town I lived in as a child! I learned that lots of people are creating content for US readers in English. Their work for the highly competitive US market sets the standard for translations from overseas, as well.

Conference-goers in costume to celebrate Tomie dePaola’s 80th birthday

We love Strega Nona!

Finally, insofar as SCBWI itself represents US children’s publishing, I found reasons to take heart: SCBWI has established a new Translator category for members! In addition, an Advisory Board meeting after SCBWI LA included a discussion of initiatives to support translation. I see these as encouraging signs.

Meanwhile, stocked with info from LA plus the fuel of renewed and new friendships, I am ready to return to work!

P.S. When I got home, my daughters pored over picture books I had bought in LA and claimed illustrators’ postcards to use for crafts. It was a treat to watch creators’ efforts feed hours of play!

 

Six-year-old’s expansion on postcard by Ryan Jackson

 

For even more info on the 2014 SCBWI Summer Conference, click here for the official  blog coverage and recaps.

IJET 2014: SCBWI Japan Translation Group Connects with SWET and Yamaneko Honyaku Club

This summer brought IJET 2014: the 25th-anniversary conference of JAT (Japan Association of Translators), held for the first time ever in Tokyo. SCBWI Japan Translation Group was there! Thanks to SWET (the Society of Writers, Editors and Translators), SCBWI members displayed materials at a shared table and enjoyed a SWET-SCBWI networking lunch. Also displayed were materials of Yamaneko Honyaku Club, whose members translate children’s literature from English into Japanese.

SCBWI Japan Translation Group focuses on translation of children’s lit from Japanese into English, but we sometimes receive queries for translations into Japanese, and always refer them to Yamaneko Honyaku Club. We treasure our bond with SWET, a haven for all who write, edit, and translate in English about Japan. And we thank JAT for prompting this meet-up at IJET!

Top: SWET-SCBWI lunch at IJET. Bottom: Wendy Uchimura and Sako Ikegami with George Bourdaniotis of SWET. Photos courtesy SWET.

SCBWI Japan Translation Group and Yamaneko Honyaku Club materials on display. Books are translations by SCBWI Japan members (J to E) and Yamaneko members (E to J). Photo by Sako Ikegami.

AFCC 2013 to Include Translation Seminar

Translators in Asia have a new reason to attend the Asian Festival of Children’s Content in Singapore. AFCC 2013 will include a half-day translation seminar, in addition to the writing and illustration tracks that make it the premier children’s book creators’ conference in Asia.

AFCC will take place May 25-30, 2013. Tracks for translators, writers and illustrators are May 27-30.

An early bird registration discount is advertised through March 31. A significant discount is usually offered to SCBWI members.

SCBWI Tokyo members’ experiences at past AFCCs are written up in Carp Tales, the SCBWI Tokyo newsletter. Download in PDF here. See:

AFCC 2010: Spring/Summer 2010 issue, p. 13

AFCC 2011: Spring/Summer 2011 issue, p. 11

AFCC 2012: Summer 2012 issue, p. 11

The 2011 and 2012 reflections include a translator’s perspective.

Announcing SCBWI Tokyo Translation Day 2012!

The SCBWI Tokyo Translation Group announces SCBWI Tokyo Translation Day 2012: Bringing Japanese Teen Literature to the World! We hope everyone interested in J-E translation for children, teens in particular, will join us on June 16 in Yokohama. Full details below.

 SCBWI Tokyo Translation Day 2012: Bringing Japanese Teen Literature to the World

A day of presentations, critiques, and conversation for published and pre-published translators of Japanese children’s literature into English, with a focus on young adult (YA) literature.

Time: Saturday, June 16, 2012, 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

Place: Yokohama International School, 2F Pauli Bldg

Fee: Advance Registration 3,000 yen SWET and SCBWI members; 4,000 yen non-members. At the Door 4,000 yen SWET and SCBWI members; 5,000 yen non-members.

Details: For full details and presenter bios, see www.scbwi.jp and below this intro.

This full-day event includes:

• “Of Video Games, Novels, and Translating for Teens,” with Alexander O. Smith, translator
• “Thoughts for Translators after Editing TOMO: Friendship Through Fiction—An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories,” with Holly Thompson, author
• “Translating for TOMO” with Holly Thompson plus Juliet Winters Carpenter, Sako Ikegami, Deborah Iwabuchi, Hart Larrabee, Lynne E. Riggs, Alexander O. Smith, and Avery Fischer Udagawa, translators
• “Practical Ways to Explore the Children’s and YA Book Market” with Avery Fischer Udagawa, translator
• “SCBWI Tokyo Translation Group and Networking Opportunities” with Sako Ikegami, translator

Plus a workshop led by Alexander O. Smith:

• “Translating Japanese Teen Literature in Contrasting Genres”

Advance registrations and translations of short texts for the workshop must be received by Saturday, May 19, 2012. To register and request workshop texts, send an email to contact (at) scbwi.jp

This event will be in English.

* * * * * * * * * * *

SCBWI Tokyo Translation Day 2012 Schedule 

8:30   Registration

8:50 Opening Remarks

9:00-10:00 Translator Alexander O. Smith: Of Video Games, Novels, and Translating for Teens

As a translator of novels, video games, and two novels about video games—Brave Story and ICO by Miyuki Miyabe, the former a winner of the 2008 Mildred L. Batchelder Award—Alexander O. Smith discusses translating for today’s teens. His presentation will include an eye-opening look at the nuts and bolts of entertainment translation, both for the screen and for the printed page; advice for translators just starting out; and an open discussion about what constitutes a “good” translation. Bring your ideas and questions!

10:15-10:45 Author Holly Thompson: Thoughts for Translators after Editing Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction—An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories

The YA anthology Tomo was released in March 2012 in honor of the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami victims and survivors. The book’s 36 Japan-related stories include 10 translations from Japanese. Tomo editor and YA author Holly Thompson reflects on editing translations for Tomo and probes what can make Japanese fiction marketable in English-language YA markets.

11:00-12:00 Roundtable: Translating for Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction—An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories

Holly Thompson joins Tomo translators Juliet Winters Carpenter, Sako Ikegami, Deborah Iwabuchi, Hart Larrabee, Lynne E. Riggs, Alexander O. Smith, and Avery Fischer Udagawa to discuss the process of acquiring, translating, and editing translations for the book. Panelists will discuss how stories or authors were chosen, how translators got involved, and how stakeholders collaborated to revise drafts and launch Tomo.

12:00-1:15 Lunch Picnic—Bring a lunch and “talk shop” with other translators in the event room or nearby Minato-no-Mieru Oka Koen. Enjoy self-introductions and discussion of current projects in a casual setting.

1:30-3:00 Workshop with Alexander O. Smith: Translating Japanese Teen Literature in Contrasting Genres

Alexander O. Smith comments on participants’ translations of contrasting excerpts from Japanese fiction for teenage readers and up. The discussion will highlight ways to translate faithfully and consider the YA market.

Translation Day participants must submit their translations of selected text excerpts for this workshop by May 19. To request the texts and register for Translation Day, send an e-mail to contact (at) scbwi.jp

3:15-3:45 Translator Avery Fischer Udagawa: Practical Ways to Explore the Children’s and YA Book Market

Like writers and illustrators, translators can explore the children’s and teen book market through reading, professional networking, school visits, and children’s publishing events. Avery Fischer Udagawa offers ideas. 

4:00-4:15 Translator Sako Ikegami: SCBWI Tokyo Translation Group and Networking Opportunities

The SCBWI Tokyo Translation Group offers an email list, group blog, and industry “connectivity” to all JE translators for children. Sako Ikegami outlines recent projects and opens a discussion of future directions.

4:15-5:00 Discussion/Q & A and Closing Comments

* * * * * * * * * * *

SCBWI Tokyo Translation Day 2012 Presenters and Panelists

Juliet Winters Carpenter, a Midwesterner by birth, is a longtime resident of Japan. Her many translations include mysteries, romance novels, haiku and tanka poetry, historical fiction, and works on Buddhist philosophy. Volume one of Clouds Above the Hill: A Historical Novel of the Russo-Japanese War, her joint translation of Ryotaro Shiba’s Saka no ue no kumo, is forthcoming from Routledge in December 2012. She lives in Kyoto, where she is a professor at Doshisha Women’s College, and on Whidbey Island, Washington. She translated “Fleecy Clouds” by Arie Nashiya for Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction—An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories. www.swet.jp/index.php/people/juliet-winters-carpenter

 Sako Ikegami of Kobe can lay claim to various titles (clinical pharmacist, medical translator/writer, children’s book reader), but best enjoys working with young adult books. She aspires to bridge her two cultures, US and Japanese, by translating children’s literature in both. Her translations include Ryusuke Saito’s The Tree of Courage and Angela Johnson’s First Part Last. She translated a story by Saito for Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction—An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories. http://www.sakotrans.com

Deborah Iwabuchi made her first trip to Japan at age 17 and took up permanent residence soon after college. She has translated, among other works, novels by popular Japanese authors, including The Devil’s Whisper and The Sleeping Dragon by Miyuki Miyabe. Originally from California, she lives in the city of Maebashi with her family and runs her own company, Minamimuki Translations. She has co-authored bestselling books on writing and reading English for the Japanese market. She translated the story “The Law of Gravity” by Yuko Katakawa for Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction—An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories. http://minamimuki.com/en

Hart Larrabee was born in New York State, majored in Japanese at Carleton College in Minnesota, and earned postgraduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and University of Hawaii. A full-time freelance translator, he currently lives with his family in Nagano Prefecture. He translated the story “Anton and Kiyohime” by Fumio Takano for Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction—An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories.

Lynne E. Riggs is a professional translator based in Tokyo. She is an active member of the Society of Writers, Editors, and Translators and teaches Japanese-to-English translation at International Christian University. Her fiction translations include Kiki’s Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono and School of Freedom by Shishi Bunroku. She translated “Love Letter” by Megumi Fujino for Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction—An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories. http://www.cichonyaku.com

Alexander O. Smith has been translating video games and novels from Japanese to English since graduating from Harvard University with an MA in Classical Japanese Literature in 1998. He is the founder of Kajiya Productions Inc., co-founder of Bento Books Inc., and based in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom and Fukuoka. His translation of YA fantasy novel Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe earned the prestigious Mildred L. Batchelder Award for translated children’s literature in 2008. At the time, only two books from Japan had earned the award in its 40-year history. Smith has translated more than twenty other novels, including Harmony by Project Itoh, recipient of the Phillip K. Dick Award special citation in 2010 for science fiction, and The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino, a nominee for Best Novel in the 2012 Edgar Awards for mystery—only the second book from Japan to be so distinguished. Smith has also localized numerous video games including Final Fantasy XII, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and most recently, Tactics Ogre: PSP. He is currently working as lead writer on an as-yet unannounced game project. Smith translated a parable in verse by Yuichi Kimura for Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction—An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories. http://www.kajiyaproductions.com

Holly Thompson earned an MA from the NYU Creative Writing Program and is the author of several works that take place in Japan: the novel Ash, the picture book The Wakame Gatherers, and the verse novel Orchards, which received the 2012 APALA Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature. She edited Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction—An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories. A longtime resident of Japan, she teaches creative and academic writing at Yokohama City University and is regional advisor of the Tokyo chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). http://www.hatbooks.com

Avery Fischer Udagawa grew up in Kansas and now parents, writes, and translates in her bicultural (Japanese-American) family living near Bangkok. She holds a BA in English and Asian Studies from St. Olaf College and an MA in Advanced Japanese Studies from The University of Sheffield. Her translations from Japanese include the middle grade novel J-Boys: Kazuo’s World, Tokyo, 1965 by Shogo Oketani and a story by Sachiko Kashiwaba in Tomo: Friendship through Fiction—An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories. She contributes the column Four Worlds to the online magazine Literary Mama. http://www.averyfischerudagawa.com

www.scbwi.jp  

Three Readers, One Hundred Words

By Avery Fischer Udagawa, Bangkok

I recently attended the Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) in Singapore, which provided a fascinating overview of children’s publishing in English. Three days among authors, illustrators, and publishing insiders helped me see how translations for children fit into a larger industry.

I also gained some insights on craft. A session called First Pages for Authors provided a chance to have the opening of a work critiqued, anonymously, by a panel of three experts: Kelly Sonnack, agent with the Andrea Brown Literary Agency; Stephen Mooser, author and president of SCBWI; and Sayoni Basu, publishing director at Scholastic India.

Panelists Kelly Sonnack, Stephen Mooser, and Sayoni Basu at First Pages for Authors session, AFCC 2011

Each submission for this session was emailed in advance and read aloud on the day by a moderator. The three panelists then critiqued the piece, referring to hard copies, speaking from their perspectives as agent, author, and editor.

I wrote in advance to ask if I could submit a translation for this session, and learned that I could. Like the authors, I prepared a single A4 page with roughly the first 100 words of a work I wished to publish. I also indicated its target age level and total length. I did not identify it as a translation.

When the panel critiqued my piece, they offered a number of useful comments. The author affirmed my hunch that the passage offered enough interest to get a reader to turn the page. The agent agreed, but mentioned that a series of short sentences at the beginning might not be effective. She encouraged expanding the work from a short story to a more saleable novel. The editor mentioned that the identity of a particular activity described was not clear.

Some of these comments addressed elements that I, as translator, cannot change. (I cannot increase the length of the work, for example.) But some comments addressed aspects of my English that I can improve, and it was exhilarating to learn that experts not based in Japan were interested in reading more.

I enjoyed listening to critiques of other submissions. These ranged from the opening text of picture books to the beginnings of middle grade and young adult novels. The panelists addressed elements including pacing, vocabulary, point of view, sentence length, level of detail, the use of backstory, the balance of narration and dialogue, target audience, and strategies for revision. Many comments provided hints to me, as someone always eyeing new projects, about how to identify Japanese texts that might be appropriate for English-language markets.

Conferences held by SCBWI and similar groups frequently include writers’ critiques that, like this one, could help translators. I highly recommend attending such conferences (see my overview of AFCC in the forthcoming Spring/Summer 2011 issue of Carp Tales, the SCBWI Tokyo newsletter). Translators who hope to obtain a critique should query in advance to see if translations are accepted. Submissions will be considered as if they were original writing for the target market(s).