Deadline: Thursday, January 8, before 5:00p.m. EST
Welcome to the JetWit Haiku Challenge! The challenge is to submit one or more haiku using the designated word. The best haiku submitted wins the prize.
This challenge is courtesy of Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S., published by Palgrave Macmillan. You can also follow Roland on his blog japanamerica.blogspot.com.
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Designated word: “Pop” (you must use this word in your haiku; multiple submissions welcome)
- Deadline: Thursday, January 8, before 5:00p.m. EST
Prize: Free copy of Japanamerica + Susan Napier’s Anime: From Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle mailed to you.- Form: Haiku are typically 5-7-5 and have a seasonal reference. (Though the form actually has a fair amount of flexibility.)
- E-mail responses to: jetwit /atto/ jetwit /dotto/ com
Haiku Challenge #3 – “Pop”
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Welcome to the JetWit Haiku Challenge! The challenge is to submit one or more haiku using the designated word. The best haiku submitted wins the prize.
This challenge is courtesy of Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S., published by Palgrave Macmillan. You can also follow Roland on his blog japanamerica.blogspot.com.
-
Designated word: “Pop” (you must use this word in your haiku; multiple submissions welcome)
- Deadline: Thursday, January 8, before 5:00p.m. EST
- Prize: Free copy of Japanamerica + Susan Napier’s Anime: From Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle mailed to you.
- Form: Haiku are typically 5-7-5 and have a seasonal reference. (Though the form actually has a fair amount of flexibility.)
- E-mail responses to: jetwit /atto/ jetwit /dotto/ com
Welcome to the JetWit Haiku Challenge! The challenge is to submit one or more haiku using the designated word. The best haiku submitted wins the prize.
This challenge is courtesy of Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S., published by Palgrave Macmillan. You can also follow Roland on his blog japanamerica.blogspot.com.
-
Designated word: “Pop” (you must use this word in your haiku; multiple submissions welcome)
- Deadline: Thursday, January 8, before 5:00p.m. EST
- Prize: Free copy of Japanamerica + Susan Napier’s Anime: From Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle mailed to you.
- Form: Haiku are typically 5-7-5 and have a seasonal reference. (Though the form actually has a fair amount of flexibility.)
- E-mail responses to: jetwit /atto/ jetwit /dotto/ com
Robert P. Weston (Nara-ken, 2002-04), author of Zorgamazoo, has reviewed all haiku submissions containing the designated word “prose“ for Haiku Challenge #2 and has selected a winner to receive a free copy of his book. Read on for his decision and rationale.
Following in the footsteps of James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06), I feel obliged to assemble a short-list of honourable mentions. I make no claims, however, as to having any insightfulness when it comes to properly appreciating haiku…
Second runner-up, for its tenderness and topicality (’tis the season, after all), we have Justin Tedaldi’s entry:
The gift was thoughtful
The letter’s prose delightful
Happy holidays
—Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02)
First runner-up, for it’s gritty natural realism, is Alexei Esikoff’s ode to the grim weather of the Midwest:
The temperature drops
Buried under slushy prose
Minneapolis
—Alexei Esikoff (Fukushima-ken, 2001-02)
Finally, the winner this week is Meredith Hodges-Boos (who had an honourable mention in the previous contest, incidentally). Her haiku appeals to my love of word play — and even manages a nifty metaphor in the meantime. Congrats, Meredith!
Take roses with ‘P’s
Mix in the ordinary
Watch word gardens grow
—Meredith Hodges-Boos (Ehime-ken, 2003-05)
Click “Read More” to see the other haiku submitted.
Roland Kelts on NPR’s The World
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Listen to Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99) being interviewed on NPR’s “The World.” http://www.theworld.org/?q=node/23341 Summary below:
As a global power, Japan is fading, but increasing numbers of people outside the country are opting to learn Japanese. What’s fueling the new interest is a growing obsession with Japanese Manga comics and Japanese animation. The World’s Patrick Cox has the story.
Favorite translator – update
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On December 12 JetWit asked the question: Do you have a favorite translator?
Here are two responses received so far. Feel free to post additional comments or e-mail them to jetwit /att/ jetwit /dotto/ com:
Cheleen, Kia (CIR, Aichi-ken 1996-98, ALT 1998-1999) says:
Linda Hoaglund is one of my favorites. She is famous for doing subtitles for Japanese movies (like Kurosawa films) and she is an AMAZING interpreter as well. She has a massive vocabulary and everything she does sounds so natural. Linda doesn’t just do big-name projects — she does a lot of translation & interpreting for the arts/artists as well. Even though she grew up in Japan (to which some would say, “of COURSE she can read/write/speak Japanese”), I still think that her interpreting and translation skills are extremely polished and give the rest of us translators/ interpreters something to strive for.
Joel Dechant (CIR Kagoshima-ken, 2001-04) says:
JET alum Roland Kelts quoted in The New Yorker
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Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, was quoted or mentioned this week in articles in:
- The New Yorker magazine, in the “Letter from Japan” article by Dan Goodyear on cellphone novelists (subscription required)
- Asahi Shimbun – Roland’s contribution to the Japanese literary journal, MONKEY BUSINESS, is highlighted in this article featuring editor and literary translator Motoyuki Shibata.
- The Christian Science Monitor in
- Japan Cracking U.S. Pop-culture Hegemony – Japan is quietly emerging as a global trendsetter in pop culture, as well as in green technology and environmental practices.
- Mieko Kawakami: From blogger to global novelist – Her latest novel won Japan’s top prize for new fiction writers. Kawakami is one of an emerging group of young Japanese women writers.
From www.fewmets.net
James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06), author of The Order of Odd-Fish, has reviewed all haiku submissions containing the designated word “fewmets“ for Haiku Challenge #1 and has selected a winner. Read on for his decision and rationale.
I was blown away by the quality of the fewmets haiku I received. I can state with absolute conviction that these are the best haiku about fewmets that I have ever read!
First, the honorable mentions. Meredith Hodges-Boos (Ehime-ken, Yoshida-cho, 2003-05) wrote an appropriately grim, medieval-epic haiku that ends with a wonderfully forbidding promise of violence:
Fewmets steam on bleak
Frost-covered leaves, hunter stoops
Soon blood will melt ice
Chillingly beautiful! Worthy of Beowulf! I can almost imagine Ms. Hodges-Boos is the kind of woman who makes her own chain mail.
Rick Ambrosio (Ibaraki-ken, 2006-08) put a decidedly modern spin on fewmets:
The fewmets of love;
lipstick wine glass, lost overcoat . . .
painful cotton swab nurse!
Every man who has endured a gonorrhea test will find the last line poignantly evocative. Mr. Ambrosio is clearly a gentleman about town, a chap of wide and varied experiences, a man who almost certainly has chlamydia. He came very close to winning, except that the second and third lines each have one more syllable than a fastidious interpretation of the haiku form allows. As sloppy as a tart’s kiss, Mr. Ambrosio!
Finally, we come to the winner, from the talented Ilya Blokh:
A French truffle, on the
Tongue, melts, but how I was wrong
It was a fewmet
True, the first line might has one more syllable than usual, but Mr. Blokh’s brilliance trumps formal quibbles. The imagination is set giddily free. How did the poet come across this spurious truffle? On what pretext is he eating it? From what beast does this fewmet issue? What does the fewmet taste like? Mr. Blokh creates an entire world for me to inhabit.
And thither shall I now flit, to freely and sportively bombinate among the flowers of his soul.
Click “Read More” to see a couple more haiku submissions.
Update: Roland Kelts
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Here’s the latest update on JET alum Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica and professor at Tokyo University:
ADBUSTERS: A feature story, co-written with Leo Lewis of the Times of London, about signs of socialism and unrest among Japanese youth and the Kanikosen phenomenon is now online:
http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/81/big_in_japan.html (On a related topic, Stacy Smith comments on recent political unrest following the closing of an auto manufacturing plant in Japan in WITLife #7-Totyota Shock (Part 2).)
DAILY YOMIURI: In his latest Soft Power/Hard Truths column in the Daily Yomiuri, Roland revisits Michael Arias, the only American to have directed a feature anime film in Japan–Tekkonkinkreet—(which, incidentally, premiered in the US at MOMA in 2007). Arias’s forthcoming film is the live action Heaven’s Door (opens 2/7/09 in Japan), which Roland attended at a private screening last week. Link to the column: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/arts/20081212TDY13004.htm
Seikai University Talk: Roland’s blog (japanamerica.blogspot.com) has a post about his recent talk at Seikei University in western Tokyo about Japanamerica where he introduced both the ideas examined in the book and the latest happenings in the trans-cultural exchange between Japan and the U.S.
Remember that episode of Family Ties where Alex mentions his favorite economist (Milton Friedman)? Well, I was wondering if JET alums have favorite translators.
If you have a favorite translator (or translators) , please let me know, and let me know what you like about the translator.
I’ll publish the aggregated results on JetWit in the next week or so for the benefit of the JET alum community. (So if for any reason you don’t want your name included with your comments, just indicate that in your email.)
E-mail responses to: jetwit /at/ jetwit /dot/ com
Roland Kelts Update: Studio360 in Japan and Interview in Brooklyn Rail
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Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, has a few new things going on since we last checked in with him.
Studio360 – See some photos and read about Roland working with the Studio360 folks in Japan on an upcoming radio program. (Studio360 is a great show that runs on NPR and explores cultures via their artists.)
Brooklyn Rail — Roland has an interview in Brooklyn Rail with David Hadju, A Columbia Journalism School professor and author of Lush Life, Positively 4th Street, and now Ten Cent Plague, a record of America’s pre-code comic book auteurs.
Welcome to the first JetWit Haiku Challenge! The challenge is to submit one or more haiku using the designated word. The best haiku submitted wins the prize.
This week’s challenge will be judged by James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06), author of The Order of Odd-Fish.
- Designated word (chosen by James): “Fewmets“ (a Medieval English word that means the droppings of an animal, by which the hunter identifies the prey. Mentioned in Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wind In The Door, specifically as dragon droppings.)
- Deadline: Thursday, December 11, before 5:00p.m. EST
- Prize: Free copy of The Order of Odd-Fish mailed to you.
- Form: Haiku are typically 5-7-5 and have a seasonal reference. Though the form actually has a fair amount of flexibility. Ultimately, James is the judge. If you look at his website or read a page from his book, you’ll get a pretty quick read on his sensibilities.
- E-mail responses to: jetwit /atto/ jetwit /dotto/ com
JET alum photos from Obama-shi, Fukui-ken Celebration
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JET alum professional translator Philip Schnell happened to be in Japan at the time of Obama’s presidential victory, decided to drop in on Obama-shi and stumbled into the surreal experience of a Japanese Obama watch/victory party.
Click here to see more of his photos.
Kinokuniya (NY) to host George Hirose – Night Light – Fri. Dec 5
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Kinokuniya Book Store (6th Ave between 40th & 41st Sts.) will be hosting the George Hirose: Night Light – Images from Japan, New York exhibit from December 5-30, with a special reception and book signing on Friday, December 5 from 5:30-8:00 p.m.
The reception will also feature a live performance of traditional Okinawan music by KOSSAN (who plays for the popular and exuberant chindon band HappyFunSmile for which George has done photography work and is a big fan.)
Is author David Mitchell a JET alum?
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Can anyone confirm whether award-winning author David Mitchell is an alumni of the JET Program? His Wikipedia entry and other info on the web make clear that he lived in Hiroshima for 8 years and taught English at a technical school. Just trying to confirm whether he’s a JET alum.
E-mail any info to jetwit /atto/ jetwit /dotto/ com.
FYI, he is the author of (among other things) Ghostwritten (1999), number9dream (2001), and CloudAtlas (2004).
