Leanne Ogasawara lived in Japan and worked as a Japanese translator for twenty years. Her translation work has included academic translation, philosophy, and documentary film.
Publications:
- Her creative writing has appeared in The Millions, Michigan Quarterly Review, Pleiades Magazine, Gulf Coast Journal, Kyoto Journal, River Teeth/Beautiful Things, Hedgehog Review, Entropy, Dillydoun Review, the Rumpus, etc.
- Her essay, Tokyo: city of fires and flowers (an academic paper delivered at a conference Rethinking City and Identity 反思城市与身份认同 at Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, 16-18 May 2012) was published in the Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy.
Writing Awards:
- Her short story “Bare Bones” won the 2020 Calvino Prize, judged by Joyce Carol Oates
- Her memoir manuscript, Dreaming in Japanese, was nominated by faculty and then short-listed for the 2023 Allegra Johnson Award at UCLA EXtension
- Her story collection Cabinet of Curiosity was shortlisted in the 2021 Dzanc Books SHORT STORY COLLECTION PRIZE and a finalist for the 2021 Nilsen Prize
- Her novel Excerpt The King’s Painter was long-listed for the The Masters Review 2021 Novel Excerpt Contest
- Her book manuscript Travels Through Paintings was a semifinalist for the Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Book Prize judged by Kazim Ali
- Her essay "The Best Picture in the World: On the Piero della Francesca Trail" went to the final judges on the nonfiction shortlist, and "Birdwatching in Oil Paintings" made it to the long-list of the 2022 Disquiet Literary Contest. Judges said this:
Our readers thought that "The Best Picture in the World" was "a lovely, well-researched essay that successfully moves between ekphraksis and the personal. It was a particularly nice change of pace to read a "happy" love story."
- "Birdwatching in Oil Paintings" was also the first runner-up in the 2022 Los Angeles Review Literary Award and a semi-finalist in the Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards.
- Her essay "A Man Takes a Cabbage on a Walk" made it to the final round of readings and was ultimately one of three runners-up to the first place prize at Lazuli Literary Group's Summer 2022 Writing Contest.
Other:
- She has a monthly column at the arts and science blog 3 Quarks Daily and began writing at 3 Quarks Daily after winning a writing contest at the blog, judged by Gish Jen.
- She is a long-time contributor for an award-winning literary magazine Kyoto Journal.
- She previously blogged the Tang Dynasty Times. The blog is included in the educational links on the British Libraries' Dunhuang Project website and the IDP blog; as well as to various history blogs, including Frog in a Well.
Book Reviews:
Her book reviews have appeared in the Chicago Review of Books, the Rumpus, the Millions, the Dublin Review of Books, the Asian Review of Books, Kyoto Journal, Books on Asia, and The New Ramble--translated into Chinese for Rujiawang.
Other Info
Leanne earned her Certificate in Creative Writing from UCLA Extension. Educated at UC Berkeley and University of Wisconsin at Madison.
She currently lives in Pasadena with her husband, Chris, an astrophysics professor at Caltech.
A Translator Gets Translated
In 2012, I was invited to a conference in Shanghai:
Rethinking City and Identity 反思城市与身份认同 Institute of Arts and HumanitiesShanghai Jiao Tong University 上海交通大学 人文艺术研究院 Shanghai, 16-18 May ( Download Conference Program (1) - Copy)
Various academics and media people presented papers on the spirit of a particular city. I spoke on Tokyo, a city where I lived for ten years, before moving to my beloved Tochigi for another twelve years.
It was a lot of fun--and I loved meeting new friends and seeing Shanghai. I also realized how daunting and hard it is to give an academic paper at a conference. It was pretty humbling since I was awful.
The good news was our papers were translated into Chinese and yesterday the book arrived in the mail. What a surprise!
I thought I would upload my paper draft in case anyone was interested. (the biographical blurb was not written by me).
Translation
Academic/ Literary/ Art/ Cultural
Academic papers for publication in literature, art & philosophy (Hiroshima University, Toyo University; etc.); archive material translations for Oriental Library's Silk Road Project (translations/editing); novel translation; museum catalog for children's book illustrations art exhibition; script for video series on UNESCO World Heritage Sites, etc. Translations (in progress) of "The Great China" series of documentary videos used as part of Japan Airlines' in-flight entertainment etc.; Japan Foreign Press Center book translation, Japan Inside Out; etc. SBI Art Folio Auction (auction catalog essays)
Poetry
My poetry translations have focused on academic article about haiku and tanka, including translations of the poetry itself, as well as articles and poetry translations for the International Haiku Magazine "Ginyu."
My main area of interest is in the modern poet Takamura Kotaro. I have been working on a new translation (with Sam Hamill) of his Chieko Poems.
Chieko Poetry Poetry Translation Selections:
University of Iowa's Literary Translation Journal Exchanges: Spring 2019
and
University of Western Michigan's Literary Translation Journal Transference (Peer Reviewed)
Also a poem included in Barbara Abercrombie's Language of Loss