The “Waseda International House of Literature Translation Project” aims to nurture translators, promote the field of translated literature, and foster international exchange among literary translators. Now in its second year, the project has expanded beyond the ongoing translator residency program to include invitations to international authors and editors to participate in lectures, discussions, and other exchange activities.
As the first guest in this new initiative, Camilla Grudova—a Canadian author currently residing in Scotland—spent time at the Waseda International House of Literature from Thursday, May 22 to Friday, June 6.
Here is a message we received from Grudova after her return home.
The Haruki Murakami Library is both dreamy and cerebral, a place for writers of all ages and levels to daydream and unlike any other library in the world . My stay at The Waseda International House of Literature gave me the chance to mull over and ferment new ideas for a new book, my imagination wandering to places it had never been before, and connect with artists, writers and translators. I love that it is a place where words, images and sound all come together with a gallery space and an LP listening room. A writer needs to feast on music and visual art just as much as they need other books and it is magical to discover a library that knows this.
※A report on the event held on Wednesday, May 28—“Authors Alive! – The Cutting Edge of World Literature: A Talk and Reading by Camilla Grudova”—will be published at a later date.
