Haikasoru reports the sad death of the leading Japanese science fiction writer, Sakyō Komatsu. He was best known for his earthquake disaster novel, Japan Sinks, which sold over 4 million copies. There is a brief obituary in The Independent. The Science Fiction Encyclopedia entry for Komatsu can be found here.
Category: People
Some Translation Links
Here are a few translation-related stories from around the blogosphere from the past few weeks:
– Jeff VanderMeer interviews Czech novelist and poet Michael Ajvaz;
– Concatenation lists Unseen Mainland European SF Classics;
– Nick Mamatas at Haikasoru blogs about one of their new releases: The Stories of Ibis by Hiroshi Yamamoto;
– Feng Zhang writes about a famous Chinese fanzine, Xin Huan Jie (New Realms of Fantasy and Science Fiction);
– Chad W. Post reviews Edie Grossman’s Why Translation Matters;
– Tim Parks tells The Guardian why translators deserve to be noticed;
– Edward Gauvin suggests that translating might be a bit like writing science fiction.
Takumi Shibano, 1926-2010
News has come in from Japan of the death of Takumi Shibano, a well-known Japanese author, translator and fan. He was 83. Locus has a brief obituary online.