East Asian Humanities Workshop: “Translating Noise and Silence in Izumi Suzuki’s Science Fiction", David Boyd

“Translating Noise and Silence in Izumi Suzuki’s Science Fiction” 

Abstract: Izumi Suzuki (1949-1986) wrote mind-bending science fiction from the early seventies until her death in the mid-eighties. Two years ago, a group of six literary translators from the United Kingdom and the United States worked together to produce Terminal Boredom (Verso Books, 2021), the author’s first appearance in English translation. This April, four of Suzuki’s translators, including David Boyd, published a second volume of Suzuki stories under the title Hit Parade of Tears (Verso Books, 2023). In this talk, Boyd will discuss both Suzuki collections and dive into the rabbit holes, wormholes, and black holes encountered during the translation process. 

Terminal Boredom (Verso Books Link Here) and Hit Parade of Tears (Verso Books Link Here) can be purchased as ebook or paperback (with free e-book) on Verso Books. 

David Boyd is assistant professor of Japanese at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His translation of Hideo Furukawa’s Slow Boat, published by Pushkin Press in 2017, won the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission (JUSFC) Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature in 2018. His translation of Hiroko Oyamada’s The Hole, published by New Directions in 2020, won the same prize in 2022. With Sam Bett, Boyd has translated three novels by Mieko Kawakami for Europa Editions (Breasts and Eggs [2020], Heaven [2021], and All the Lovers in the Night [2022]). His cotranslation of Kawakami’s Heaven was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2022. Boyd has also translated numerous children’s books for Enchanted Lion Books. His annotated translation of Osamu Dazai’s No Longer Human is forthcoming from Penguin Classics.