Juliet Winters Carpenter (born 1948) is an American translator of modern Japanese literature. Born in the American

Midwest The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

, she studied

Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japa ...

at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

and the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. After completing her graduate studies in 1973, she returned to Japan in 1975, where she became involved in translation efforts and teaching. Carpenter is a devotee of traditional Japanese music and is a licensed instructor of the koto and

shamisen The , also known as or (all meaning "three strings"), is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese instrument . It is played with a plectrum called a bachi. The Japanese pronunciation is usually b ...

. She is professor emeritus at Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

and has been involved in the Japanese Literature Publishing Project(JLPP), a government-supported project translating and publishing Japanese books overseas. Carpenter retired to Whidbey Island in Washington State with her husband Bruce, professor emeritus of Tezukayama University. They have three children: Matthew, Graham, and Mark. Carpenter's translation of

Kōbō Abe , known by his pen name , was a Japanese writer, playwright and director. His 1962 novel ''The Woman in the Dunes'' was made into an Woman in the Dunes, award-winning film by Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1964. Abe has often been compared to Franz Kaf ...

's novel '' Secret Rendezvous'' ((密会, Mikkai) won the 1980 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. Her translation of Minae Mizumura's novel '' A True Novel'' (本格小説, Honkaku Shōsetsu) won that same award for 2014-2015 and earned numerous other awards including the 2014 Lewis Galantière Award of the American Translators Association. '' Once Upon a Time in Japan'', a book of folk tales which she co-translated with Roger Pulvers, received the 2015 Gelett Burgess Children's Book Award for Best Multicultural Book. Carpenter won the 2021-2022 Lindsey and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize for a lifetime achievement as a translator of modern Japanese literature, with particular reference to her recent translation of Mizumura Minae’s ''An I-Novel'' (Columbia University Press, 2021) ''An I-Novel,'' translated by Carpenter, won the 2019-20 William F. Sibley Memorial Subvention Award for Japanese Translation. Her translation of '' The Great Passage'' by

Shion Miura is a Japanese writer. She has won the Naoki Prize, the Oda Sakunosuke Prize, and the Japan Booksellers' Award. Her work has been adapted for film and television, and her books have been translated into Indonesian, Chinese, Korean, Vietnam ...

, an audiobook read by Brian Nishii, won the 2017 Golden Earphones Award.

Translations

Other works

Carpenter is also the author of the book ''Seeing Kyoto''.

References

Televised nostalgia in Japan: Those were the days

* ttps://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2009/01/11/books/blood-sweat-and-tears-of-zen/#.W-r8XKeZMWo The Asian Bookshelf by Donald Richie: Blood, sweat and tears of Zen
Strange Moors: 'A True Novel,' by Minae Mizumura
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carpenter, Juliet Winters 1948 births Living people American speculative fiction translators Japanese–English translators American expatriates in Japan Koto players University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni Scholars of Japanese literature American women writers 20th-century American translators 21st-century American translators 20th-century American women 21st-century American women