Sawako Nakayasu

Sawako Nakayasu is an artist working with language, performance, and translation – separately and in various combinations. She has lived mostly in the US and Japan, briefly in France and China, and translates from Japanese. Her newest book is Some Girls Walk Into The Country They Are From (Wave Books), and forthcoming books include Pink Waves (Omnidawn), and Settle Her (Solid Objects). Her 2020 pamphlet with Ugly Duckling Presse, called Say Translation Is Art, has been translated into Dutch and will soon be available in Korean. (Profile photo by Mitsuo Okamoto)

Updated January 2022

culture en ja

Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column

Bite

It is a wonderful thing to be able to start the year with weather and words that are crisp, refreshing, new. This is the energy coming forth in prose poetry from Massachusetts based artist, Sawako Nakayasu, and here we are treated to her English and Japanese language versions for two pieces here from her latest work. Her writing allows us to savor, with amusement and wonder, the placement and meaning of characters in the abstract, and emerge renewed. Happy New 2022, folks. Enjoy! — traci kato-kiriyama * * * * * Sawako Nakayasu is an artist working with language, performance, and tr…

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