Kiwao Nomura
Kiwao Nomura | |
|---|---|
 Kiwao Nomura in February 2012 | |
| Born | 20 October 1951 Saitama Prefecture, Japan |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Language | Japanese |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Website | |
| www | |
Kiwao Nomura (野村 喜和夫, Nomura Kiwao, born 20 October 1951 in Saitama Prefecture) is a Japanese poet, writer, critic, and lecturer. He is considered one of the driving forces behind contemporary Japanese poetry.[1][2]
Literary style[edit]
The work of Nomura "plays with language in radical and diverse ways, employing subtleties of rhythm, semantics, image, gender, punctuation, and repetition, often all within the same short stanza."[2] Forrest Gander, co-translator of Kiwao Nomura’s poetry, noted in an interview, "What we find in innovative Japanese poetries like Gozo Yoshimasu's and Kiwao Nomura's has, as far as I know, no equivalents in contemporary poetry in English. The mix of the philosophical and the whimsical makes for a tone that is absolutely weird to Westerners."[3] According to Poetry International Web, "In all such experiments, Nomura shows himself to be very much in search of a center of gravity where the almost ritual repetitions and revisitations of captivating sounds and (often erotic) images dissolve of their own accord into the night, darkness, nothingness, the end of a delirium."[4] Publishers Weekly concludes that Nomura's poems "succeed through astonishment, shock, and disorder, almost in the manner of Kathy Acker or William S. Burroughs."[5]
Published works[edit]
Books of poetry translated in English[edit]
- Spectacle & Pigsty: Selected Poems of Kiwao Nomura. Translated by Kyoko Yoshida and Forrest Gander. Richmond, CA: Omnidawn Publishing, 2011. ISBN 978-1-890650-53-7.
- The Day Laid Bare. Translated by Eric Selland. Tokyo & London: Isobar Press, 2020. ISBN 978-4-907359-32-4.
Books of poetry in Japanese (a selection)[edit]
- 川萎え [Dried River], 1987
- 反復彷徨 [Repeated Roams], 1992
- 特性のない陽のもとに [Under the Sun without Character], 1993
- 風の配分 [Distribution of the Wind], 1999
- ニューインスピレーション [New Inspiration], 2003
- スペクタクル [Spectacle], 2006
- plan14, 2007
- Z O L O, 2009
- Cafe spiral ou une heure en enfer [with images by Kenji Kitagawa]
Collaborative books of poetry[edit]
- 馬を野に放つ. (co-authored by Jan Lauwereyns, with images by Kris Martin; bilingual edition with a Dutch translation by Jan Lauwereyns) [Loose a Horse in the Field] Ghent, Belgium: Druksel, 2011.
Awards[edit]
- Rekitei Prize for Young Poets
- Takami Jun Prize
- 2012 Best Translated Book Award, Spectacle & Pigsty
- 2020 The Japan Poets Association 38th Modern Poetry Prize for 薄明のサウダージ(Twilight Saudade, 2019)
References[edit]
- ^ Lauwereyns, Jan; Van Adrichem, Arnoud (2008). "Slang spreekt, slang bijt". DWB. 153 (5–6). Leuven, Belgium: 739–747.
- ^ a b Fleischmann, T. (14 December 2011). "It's Pigsty I". The Rumpus. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
- ^ Morrison, Rusty. "An Interview with Forrest Gander". Omnidawn. Archived from the original on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
- ^ Lauwereyns, Jan. "Kiwao Nomura". Poetry International Web. Archived from the original on 15 April 2013. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
- ^ "Spectacle & Pigsty". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
External links[edit]
- Official website (in Japanese)
- Omnidawn
- Alligatorzine
- Poetry International Web
- International Writing Program, University of Iowa
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