Submissions will be accepted through September 30, 2010, Japan time.

For more detailed information, check the Translation Prize page on our website.

When it was publicly announced that the 2009 Nihon SF Taishō had gone to Harmony (ハーモニー) by　Itō Project (伊藤計劃), science-fiction fans across Japan must have been relieved to hear it and at the same time sad, because Itō had died of cancer only a few months earlier. Itō received the Seiun Award the same year, and by taking the SF Taishō as well joined a very select club limited to authors with double literary titles. The event also marked the first time the SF Taishō has been awarded to a dead author.

An NPO, however, can only be established or successful with a contributing membership, and the first step therefore has to be discovering what other people in the field think about the idea.
I have prepared an introductory proposal outlining what Kurodahan Press does, what I hope it can do in the future, and why I think an NPO is a good idea. The proposal is available as a downloadable PDF located here:
http://www.kurodahan.com/mt/uploads/Kurodahan.NPO.pdf

This is a preliminary outline, incorporating the ideas of a number of interested people, but it is hardly the final version. If you are even somewhat interested in the idea I urge you to read the proposal and let me know your thoughts, suggestions and criticisms. In addition to getting an indication of how much interest there is "out there" in the idea, I also hope to further improve the concept.

Please feel free to distribute this email, and/or the PDF.

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Compartments

Zoran Živković
translated by Alice Copple-Tošić

On a strange train journey, in a series of six compartments, a traveler experiences unpredictable encounters, culminating in a meeting of epiphanic power. Through a narrative of dreamlike sharpness Compartments taps into the fears and absurdities, the beauties and mysteries of the unconscious mind, to achieve a consummation both moving and full of hope.　
This volume also contains the novella "The Square," an uplifting meditation on the restorative power of Art and "The Teashop," a superb new novelette about storytelling and the miraculous weavings of Fate, as well as two short stories, "The Telephone" and "First Photograph."　

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Four Stories Till the End

Zoran Živković
translated by Alice Copple-Tošić

In what strange edifice of the imagination do you find a condemned cell, a hotel room and a hospital room? What kind of hotel offers a zinc mine, a meat-packing plant, a weapons factory and a cemetery of famous artists among its attractions? Why do four people commit suicide in the same bathroom and why does a literature professor cut up several of the greatest works of literature into a confetti of letters? In this wildly imaginative, wildly funny satire on Art and Death nothing is quite what it seems and the maze of symbols grows more complex with each encounter.

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The Library

Zoran Živković
translated by Alice Copple-Tošić

A cycle of six thematically linked stories, droll renditions of the nightmares ensuing upon misplaced, or (of course) excessive, bibliophilia. A writer encounters a website where all his possible future books are on display; a lonely man faces an infinite flow of hardback books through his mailbox; an ordinary library turns by night into an archive of souls; the Devil sets about raising standards of infernal literacy; one book houses all books; a connoisseur of hardcovers strives to expel a lone paperback from his collection.

• Winner of the 2003 World Fantasy Award
　
• Longlisted for 2004 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
　

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Miss Tamara, the Reader

Zoran Živković
translated by Alice Copple-Tošić

In this suite of eight stories, the three ages of woman—youth, midlife and senescence—engage in a complex and fruitful dance. A young Miss Tamara is lured by a series of postcards concealed in library books. A middle-aged Miss Tamara discovers that her new reading glasses turn the pages blank. An afternoon's reading is disturbed by the realization that all books have turned fatally toxic. A mysterious phone call leads to a book which blinds its readers but also to romance. Woven through these seemingly simple narratives are deep themes of youth and ageing, memory and loss, solitude and companionship, and the relationship between the physical and the mental life. Above all this is a book about reading: its pleasures, rituals, essential preciousness. Reading as an obsession which can not only isolate, but also lead to discovery and love.　

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Amarcord

Zoran Živković
translated by Alice Copple-Tošić

Ten linked stories with resonant titles explore almost every conceivable aspect of human memory: the positive and the negative, the precious and the profane, the heavenly and the unbearably hellish. Živković's deceptively simple tales anatomize the essence of what makes human beings tick, our passions, our vanities and yearnings; the very memories which make us who we are.　

Let me wish you all a wonderful 2010, the Year of the Tiger. I have high hopes for this year in spite of the prolonged economic slump, and I thought it might be a good idea to start the year off with a few comments about what we've been doing, and where I'm trying to go next.

Read the entire article!

In translation

Kaiki: Uncanny Tales from Japan

A comprehensive 3-volume collection selected and with commentary by
HIGASHI Masao
Preface by Robert WEINBERG

The third and final volume of our Kaiki series returns us to the Capital City: Tokyo. While Japan has modernized, renaming old Edo as new-born Tokyo, strange secrets remain hidden under the chrome and spotlights, unaffected by our beliefs in Science and Technology. Enjoy a new collection of stories introducing the strange denizens and happenings of the shadowy world of Japanese uncanny literature. Selected and with commentary by Higashi Masao, a recognized researcher and author in the field.

In translation

Kaiki: Uncanny Tales from Japan

Volume 2: Country Delights 【諸国の物語】

Selected and with commentary by
HIGASHI Masao
Preface by Robert WEINBERG

The second volume in our Kaiki series moves from Edo, the center of Japan during the Shogunate, into the country, where old traditions and older fears are preserved. Enjoy a deeper and very different glimpse into the world of Japanese weird and supernatural literature, with superlative works drawn from centuries of literary creation. Includes an in-depth introduction to the genre by recognized authority Higashi Masao.