Japanese Program, Bard Translation and Translatability Initiative, Asian Studies Program, Literature Program, Office of Alumni/ae Affairs, and Written Arts Program Present

Honyakking: Translating Japanese, Editing English, and Labor's Love Lost and Found

Japanese manga is one of publishing’s biggest pandemic-era success stories. Having reached new market sales heights in 2020, the medium continues to see explosive growth and visibility. But what does that success mean in the wider landscape of translated literature, when cover credit for translators remains a hot-button issue, and translators remain underpaid and under-recognized? How can we properly savor the fruits of our labor when laboring in the present system of print capitalism? The talk will discuss making the jump from Barnes and Noble manga section stalwart to professional manga translator, editing literature in English translation, and surviving, thriving, and sometimes even crying while working in an industry where passion doesn’t pay the rent.  

Alexa Frank’15 is a translator and editor based in New York. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Fulbright Program, she has translated over 20 volumes of manga, such as Kyoko Okazaki's River’s Edge and Nazuna Saito’s Offshore Lightning (both to be released this June). She currently works an assistant editor at HarperVia, an imprint of HarperCollins, where she has edited titles such as Tomihiko Morimi’s The Tatami Galaxy (translated from Japanese by Emily Balistrieri, and longlisted for the 2023 PEN Translation Prize). She is a member of the HarperCollins Union, which has been on strike since November 10, 2022.

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For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm EST/GMT-5

Location: Bertelsmann Campus Center, Weis Cinema

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