Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature
And
Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Prizes
The Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University annually awards up to $6,000 in Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prizes for the Translation of Japanese Literature. A prize is given for the best translation of a modern work or a classical work, or the prize is divided between equally distinguished translations. Translators must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States.
Beginning in the 2017-2018 academic year, the Keene Center also occasionally awards Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prizes and Grants of varying amounts, and divided between equally distinguished translations. These include: prizes up to $6000 given to outstanding translations by non-citizens or non-permanent-residents of the United States; prizes for translations of particular scholarly merit or significance; grants to promising translations-in-progress; subventions for forthcoming publication of especially deserving translations; and, in rare cases, lifetime achievement awards for translators with particularly distinguished careers.
The submission process for the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prizes and the Miyoshi Prizes and Grants is the same.
2024-2025
The 2024-2025 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature
Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize
Click here for the submission guidelines.Application form can be accessed here.
2023-2024
Click here for the latest press release.The 2023-2024 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature
(listed in alphabetical order by last name)Torquil Duthie for his translation of The Kokinshū: Selected Poems (Columbia University Press, 2023)
Kendall Heitzman for his translation of Kaori Fujino’s NAILS AND EYES (Pushkin Press, 2023)
Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize
(listed in alphabetical order by last name)Polly Barton for her translation of Mieko Kanai’s Mild Vertigo (New Directions Publishing, 2023)
Margaret Mitsutani for career achievement as a translator of modern Japanese literature, with particular reference to her recent translations of Yoko Tawada’s Three Streets (New Directions, 2022) and Scattered All Over the Earth (New Directions, 2022)
2022-2023
Click here for the latest press release.The 2022-2023 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature
Brian Bergstrom for his translation of Kobayashi Erika’s TRINITY, TRINITY, TRINITY (Astra House, 2022)Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize
(listed in alphabetical order by last name)Lucy North for her translation of Imamura Natsuko’s The Woman in the Purple Skirt: A Novel (Penguin Books, 2021)
G. G. Rowley for her translation of О̄̄gimachi Machiko’s In the Shelter of the Pine: A Memoir of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu and Tokugawa Japan (Columbia University Press, 2021)
Donald Wood for his translation of Yoshida Saburо̄ ’s Diary of a Farmer at the Foot of Mt. Kanpū: Living off the Land in Northern Japan, 1935-1936 (unpublished)
2021-2022
Click here for the latest press release.The 2021-2022 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature
(listed in alphabetical order by last name)David Boyd for his translation of Oyamada Hiroko’s The Hole (New Directions, 2020)
Glynne Walley for his translation of Kyokutei Bakin’s Eight Dogs, or Hakkenden (Cornell University Press, 2021)
Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize
Juliet Winters Carpenter for lifetime achievement as a translator of modern Japanese literature, with particular refence to her recent translation of Mizumura Minae’s An I-Novel (Columbia University Press, 2021)2020-2021
Click here for the latest press release.
The 2020-2021 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature
Gerald Groemer for Portraits of Edo and Early Modern Japan: The Shogun's Capital in Zuihitsu Writings, 1657-1855 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize
(listed in alphabetical order by last name)Steven D. Carter for lifetime achievement as a translator of classical Japanese poetry and prose
Van C. Gessel for lifetime achievement as a translator of modern Japanese fiction
Ginny Tapley Takemori for her translation of Murata Sayaka’s Convenience Store Woman (Grove Press, 2018)
2019-2020
Click here for the update on the awards ceremony.Click here for the press release from November 15, 2019.
~Awards Ceremony~The 2019-2020 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature
Janine Beichman for her translation of О̄oka Makoto’s poems in Beneath the Sleepless Tossing of the Planets, Selected Poems 1972-1989 (Kurodahan Press, 2018)Sam Bett for his translation of Mishima Yukio’s Star (New Directions, 2019)
Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize
Margaret Mitsutani for her translation of Tawada Yoko’s The Emissary (New Directions, 2018)Matt Treyvaud for his translation of Shimura Fukumi’s The Music of Color (Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture, 2019)
Friday 3 April 2020, 5:30pm, C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University
Pre-registration required and TBA
2018-2019
Click here for the press release in English.
Click here for the press release in Japanese.
~Awards Ceremony~The 2018-2019 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature
Takako Lento for her translation of Kaneko Mitsuharu’s poems in PIONEERS OF MODERN JAPANESE POETRY
Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize
Michael Brase for his translation of SOETSU YANAGI: SELECTED ESSAYS ON JAPANESE FOLK CRAFTS
Geraldine Harcourt for her translation of Tsushima Yuko’s TERRITORY OF LIGHT
Sumie Jones for lifetime achievement as a translator, and especially for her work as a translator and editor of A KAMIGATA ANTHOLOGY: LITERATURE FROM JAPAN'S METROPOLITAN CENTERS, 1600-1750; AN EDO ANTHOLOGY: LITERATURE FROM JAPAN'S MEGA CITY, 1750-1850 ; and A TOKYO ANTHOLOGY: LITERATURE FROM JAPAN'S MODERN METROPOLIS, 1850-1920
Friday 29 March, 5:30pm, C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University
2017-2018
Click here for the press release.
〜Awards Ceremony〜The 2017-2018 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature
David Boyd for SLOW BOATHiroaki Sato for THE SILVER SPOON: MEMOIR OF A BOYHOOD IN JAPAN
Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize
Jeffrey Angles for THE BOOK OF THE DEADHoward Hibbett for lifetime achievement as a translator of early-modern and modern Japanese literature
Friday 16 March 2018, 5:30pm, C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University
Pre-registration is required.
〜A reception to follow〜Archive of prize winners for the Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Prizes and Grants