Tomoka Shibasaki is writer in residence at ILFDublin 2019, ahead of Japan being our Focus Country next year. Shibasaki won the Akutagawa Prize for Spring Garden, her first novel translated into English, which tells the story of Taro, a reclusive divorcee who is drawn into a strange relationship with the woman upstairs. Shibasaki will be in conversation with her translator, Polly Barton, recently shortlisted for the Fitzcarraldo Editions essay prize for Fifty Sounds, a record of linguistic and cultural assimilation in Japan, where she lived for seven years and became a literary translator. She was the recipient of the 2016 Kyoko Selden International Translation Prize. Together they discuss their work and map out the territory of contemporary Japanese literature. Chaired by Martin Colthorpe, Programme Director, ILFDublin.

Presented with the support of the EU Japan Fest Japan Committee

Writer in Residence at ILFDublin 2019

ILFDublin is always looking to the future and excited about bringing new voices and talents to Dublin audiences. Next year our Focus Country will be Japan. With that in mind, Tomoka Shibasaki is Writer in Residence at ILFDublin 2019. From Osaka, Tomoka Shibasaki has won the Noma Literary New Face Prize and the Akutagawa Prize, and two of her works have been adapted for film. The New York Times Book Review described Spring Garden as, “Like a good meditation: quiet, surprising and deeply satisfying.” Your chance to get a head-start on ILFDublin 2020