Leanne Ogasawara (小笠原 里杏) lived and worked in Japan as a translator and writer for twenty years. Her translation work has included academic translation, philosophy, and documentary film. Since returning to California, she has published work in fiction, nonfiction, academic writing, book reviews, and poetry. She serves as a reader in fiction for Adroit Journal and is the translation editor for Kyoto Journal, an award-winning arts journal based in Japan.
Creative Writing
- Stories and essays have appeared in Lithub, Aeon Magazine, 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 short story “Bare Bones” won the 2020 Calvino Prize, judged by Joyce Carol Oates
- 2023: Bread Loaf Contributor's Award (Fiction Workshop with Jess Row) & a place at the Sewanee Writer's Workshop (Fiction with Vanessa Hua)
- 2024 Residency Award at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos
- Original poetry has appeared in La Piccioletta Barca, the Dewdrop, and Ekphrastic Journal. Her translations of poetry from the Japanese have appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals and one was included in a 2024 moon launch, as part of the Lunar Codex Mission to the South Pole of the moon.
Academic
- 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.
- Her essay Christopher Hitchens and the Korean Teabowl appeared was published on Stanford Archaeologist Patrick Hunt's Electrum Magazine
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:
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 regular 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 Rambler--translated into Chinese for Rujiawang.
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 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; University of Western Michigan's Literary Translation Journal Transference (Peer Reviewed) Volume One and Volume 7; Asymptote December 2020; and a poem included in Barbara Abercrombie's Language of Loss and on the Lunar Codex Time Capsule Mission to the Moon, launched Feb 2024 on Intuitive Machines Nova- Lander Artemis)
Education
- B.A. UC Berkeley (Philosophy)
- M.A University of Wisconsin at Madison (Japanese Linguistics and Literature)
- Certificate in Creative Writing from UCLA Extension (my partially-completed memoir manuscript Dreaming in Japanese was nominated by faculty and short-listed for Allegra Johnson Prize)
She currently lives in Pasadena with her husband, who is the Edward C. Stone Professor of Physics at Caltech.