Sunday, April 22, 2012
Earth Day Sketch and Word Crawl
at the National Museum of Science and Nature

Time:  Sunday, April 22, 2012
from 1:00 p.m.

Place:  National Museum of Science and Nature
Ueno, Tokyo
website

Fee:     museum fee of 600 yen
(free for high school students and younger)

Materials: sketch book or notebook,
sketching or writing implements

This event will be in English and Japanese.
Open to SCBWI members and nonmembers.

RSVP: Contact SCBWI Tokyo if you plan to attend.

Join us for a Sunday afternoon Earth Day Sketch and Word Crawl at the National Museum of Science and Nature in Ueno, Tokyo. Participants will pay the museum entry fee, then wander freely about the museum sketching and writing (poems, story ideas, picture book plots…). We’ll then meet to talk and share ideas and results.

Meet at 1 p.m. inside the museum at the general information desk (look for someone waving the SCBWI Tokyo logo paper). Our rough plan for the afternoon is as follows: sketch and write from 1-3:00; meet to talk and share; optional more sketching and writing in the museum or in the park until 5 pm.

Friday to Sunday, June 8, 9, 10, 2012
Middle-Grade and YA Writers’ Intensive Retreat
Featuring a Distance-learning Master Class
with U.S. Editor Cheryl Klein

Time:  Friday to Sunday, June 8, 9, 10, 2012

Place:  Slow House Villas at the Gotemba Kogen Resort
Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture
website

Fee:     18,000 yen SCBWI members; 22,000 yen nonmembers
Fee includes pre-retreat assignment handouts,
retreat programs, Saturday 3 meals, Sunday 2 meals,
shared accommodations in Slow House Villas June 8 and 9,
and Ringo no Yu onsen use

Accommodations: Shared rooms in Slow House Villas
at Gotemba Kogen Resort

This event will be in English.

Reservations: Reserve by May 1, 2012;
registration payment due by May 8, 2012
To reserve and receive payment details
Contact SCBWI Tokyo.
Reserve early!
Reservations will be limited to 20 participants.

Come rejuvenate your creative spirit with SCBWI Tokyo at the Gotemba Kogen resort in Shizuoka.

Story is what happens in a book. Plot is the structure of what happens in a book, as well as the techniques the author employs to control pacing, tension, character development, and reader reaction. In this INTENSIVE, distance-learning master class with editor and writer Cheryl Klein, we will examine the care and feeding of a plot, including a number of those techniques, the DNA of action and emotional development in a novel, and the uses of subplots. You’ll also learn methods for analyzing your own plot and identifying its strengths and weaknesses, and tips for completing a thoughtful and effective revision.

Participants will be asked to create a bookmap of their novel before the event (instructions will be provided upon payment of registration fee), and to read the novel Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco Stork plus a few handouts. There will also be an assignment to be completed during the retreat, a one-hour Skype session with Cheryl Klein, critique group meetings and sessions on aspects of writing craft. There will be plenty of time for networking and enjoying the resort’s amenities, as well as quiet, solo writing.

This retreat is geared toward published and pre-published writers with a complete or nearly complete draft of a middle-grade or young adult (YA) novel. Writers in the plotting and planning stages of such a novel are also welcome to participate.

This event is made possible in part by a regional grant from SCBWI.

SCHEDULE

Friday, June 8, 2012

• 4:00–9:00 Arrival and Check In
• 5:00–7:00 Dinner—bring a bento or try one of the resort’s restaurants
• 7:00–9:00 Opening Session--Inviting Creativity: Establishing Our Writing Intentions (Meeting Room, Hotel BU)

Saturday, June 9, 2012

• 7:00–9:00 Breakfast and networking at the free Buffet Paro
• 9:00–1:00 Cheryl Klein assignment work and discussions (Meeting Room, Hotel BU)
• 1:00–2:30 Lunch (sandwich makings provided) and free time
• 2:30–4:00 Mini critique group meetings
• 4:00–5:30 Elective recreational focus activities or solo writing time
• 5:30–7:00 Participant Dinner at Grand Table Restaurant
• 7:00–9:00 Assignment follow-up and sessions on Knowing our Characters and Maintaining Motivation
• 9:00–10:00 Skype Session with Cheryl Klein (Meeting Room, Hotel BU) An opportunity to hear answers to pre-submitted questions, discuss the assignment, and ask remaining questions. (Please note that should technical difficulties arise, this time will be used to generate additional questions that Cheryl Klein will answer at a later date.)

Sunday, June 10, 2012

• 7:00–9:00 Breakfast and networking at the free Buffet Paro
• 9:00–10:30 Elective Recreational Focus Activities or Solo Writing Time
• 10:30–11:00 Check out from Slow Villas
• 11:00–2:00 Mini Sessions (Meeting Room, Hotel BU): Synopses, Queries, Reflections and Goals; Lunch (sandwich makings provided)

Cheryl Klein is a senior editor at Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc. An interview with Klein has appeared in Carp Tales, the SCBWI Tokyo newsletter (see Fall 2008). Her website includes a blog, her book list, and extensive information about publishing for children: website.

Saturday, June 16, 2012
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.

This event is made possible by Yokohama International School and a Regional Grant from SCBWI.

Time:  Saturday, June 16, 2012
Registration 8:30 a.m. | Sessions 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Place:  Yokohama International School, Yokohama
Sessions to be held in the Loft, 2F Pauli Building.
Access information and maps

Fee:     Advance registration
3,000 yen for SCBWI and SWET members
4,000 yen for nonmembers
At the door
4,000 yen for SCBWI and SWET members
5,000 yen for nonmembers.
Advance registrations and translations of workshop texts
(see below) due by Saturday, May 19, 2012.

This event will be in English.

Registration: To reserve your place and request workshop texts, Contact SCBWI Tokyo.

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(dot)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
  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. website

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. website

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. website

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. website

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. website

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). website

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. website