An Evening of Poetry and Fiction at Temple University Japan

An Evening of Poetry and Fiction at TUJ Library

Come enjoy a reading and a cup of coffee with three local authors, Leza Lowitz, Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, and Alan Botsford Saitoh.

Date

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

Time

7:00 p.m.

Venue

TUJ Library, Azabu Hall 4th floor (Access)

Admission

This is a free event and is open to public.
Light refreshments will be served.

Contact

cahill@tuj.ac.jp

Leza Lowitz

Leza Lowitz was born in San Francisco and grew up in Berkeley. She has published three books of poems, a book of short stories, and twelve other books about Japan. Among other honors, Lowitz has received the PEN Oakland Poetry Award, the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award, grants from the NEA and NEH, a California Arts Council Fellowship in Poetry, and the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature from Columbia University. Her poetry has been translated into five languages. Lowitz first lived in Tokyo from 1989-1994, where she freelanced for "Art in America" and wrote for NHK Radio's "Japan Diary." She was also a lecturer at Tokyo University and an editor at Tokyo University Press. After almost a decade in California, she returned to Tokyo in 2003, when she opened Sun and Moon Yoga. She now lives in Tokyo with her husband and their young son. Her new book of poetry is forthcoming from Stone Bridge Press, and a book of folktales for children is forthcoming from Mandala Publishing in 2010.

Jane Joritz-Nakagawa

Jane Joritz-Nakagawa is a long time resident of Japan originally from the USA. Her most recent poetry book is Exhibit C (Ahadada, 2008). Her previous two books of poetry are Aquiline (2007) and Skin Museum (2006). Jane teaches courses in poetry, pedagogy, gender, and other subjects at Aichi University of Education where she works as Associate Professor. Jane's primary research interest is the relationship of feminism to avant garde poetry by women. Well over a hundred of Jane's poems, as well as numerous essays, academic papers and interviews, have been published in journals and anthologies in Japan, the U.S., the U.K., and Australia. She is currently finalizing her fourth book of poems.

Alan Botsford Saitoh

Alan Botsford Saitoh grew up in Maryland, U.S., earning a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a M.F.A. from Columbia University, and for the past twenty years has lived in Japan where he teaches at Kanto Gakuin Univeristy and edits (since 2003) Poetry Kanto, a poetry journal bridging east, west and beyond. He has published two books of poetry--mamaist: learning a new language (Minato No Hito, 2002) and A Book of Shadows (Katydid Books, 2003), while a book of essays & poems, Walt Whitman of Cosmic Folklore, is forthcoming in 2010 from Sage Hill Press. He lives with his wife and son in Kamakura.