Literature Program, Japanese Program, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, Experimental Humanities Program, Environmental and Urban Studies Program, Bard Translation and Translatability Initiative, Asian Studies Program, and Written Arts Program Present

Sunrise: On Creation and Translation

Erika Kobayashi is a writer and visual artist based in Tokyo. Exhibitions of her artworks have been hosted both in Japan and in Europe. Her novels and short stories play with (and often challenge) the genre of the “family saga” by positing at their center the life of multiple generations of women, and with them—in an ecocritical twist—the voices of a host of animal and mineral characters. She is particularly invested in revisiting the complex history weaving the destiny of humans and nonhumans with radiation, nuclear weapons, and nuclear power. 

In Sunrise: Radiant Stories (Astra House, 2023)—the collection of short stories that will be the main topic of this event—she brings this focus several steps further by exploring the many complex and often unseen connections between technology, language, and social and environmental ruination. Translator Brian Bergstrom brings us a rich selection of material, including one piece written to accompany one of Kobayashi’s visual exhibitions currently unavailable in the Japanese language. Sunrise’s stories thus deepen our appreciation of the work of one of the shining stars of contemporary Japanese literature, and open a window on the multifaceted opus of the author of Trinity, Trinity, Trinity (2019).

Copies of Trinity, Trinity, Trinity and Sunrise: Radiant Stories will be available for purchase at this event and are also available to order through oblongbooks.com.

This event is open to the public.

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

Time: 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm EDT/GMT-4

Location: Olin Humanities, Room 102

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