Mars: Colonies, Cyborgs and Chaos

Throw in a few virtual interactions, cyberpunk, weapons and beasties, and you get a heady mix indeed.

All of Rampo's works are made available under non-exclusive agreements, which means that as long as a publisher contacts the rights holder (Rampo's grandson is managing all rights at this time), basically all his works are available in all languages. We knew this when we signed to translate and publish Panorama Island, and figured that once our version was out, it was unlikely anyone else would bother to make a new translation. It was a reasonable risk.

Just recently, the University of Hawaii announced that it would publish its own translation of Panorama Island in late 2012. Well, that is certainly their right, and they clearly had no obligation to tell us about it, but it would have been the courteous thing to do. We are a bit amazed, not at the fact that another publisher is as fascinated by Rampo as we are, but by the fact that a publisher as prestigious as the University of Hawaii would simply ignore us entirely. They didn't need our permission or blessing, but it is so unreasonable to expect a little professional courtesy?

Our publishing schedule puts publication in early 2013, and as the University of Hawaii will publish this year, there is really no point in continuing with our project. We have decided to cancel this title.

Our fascination with Rampo remains unchanged, however, and we will continue to translate and publish other works by him in the future.

Submissions will be accepted through September 30, 2011, Japan time.

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

A five-star author in Japan, Miyamoto has written numerous award-winning books, many of which have been made into movies and a few of which have been translated into English already.
We are honored and thrilled to be able to bring more of his work to the English language, and hope to follow this up with more of his books.

Click <here> for more information. ]]> http://www.kurodahan.com/mt/e/news/miyamoto-terus-phantom-lights-collection-in-print.html http://www.kurodahan.com/mt/e/news/miyamoto-terus-phantom-lights-collection-in-print.html 00-news Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:03:33 +0900 Now I have a somewhat better idea of exactly what I have to do to cope with the new Amazon policy. It's not terribly pleasant, because it means raising prices solely to feed Amazon, but unfortunately if I want to sell via Amazon, I have no choice but to play by their rules.

We can fix the problem, but it requires making new print data for all our books and registering them with Amazon's own in-house on-demand printing subsidiary, CreateSpace. The books will have the same ISBN, price and content, but they will be handled by two different printers depending on where you order them from. Needless to say, it will also take time and money to convert all our existing books over to the new format...

It's a royal pain, but unfortunately Amazon has absolutely no obligation to sell our books if it doesn't want to, and we have no choice but to comply... which we shall be doing over the next few months.

Please accept our apologies for the problem, and we hope you'll stay with us until we get it fixed.

Here's an odd pairing: Kurodahan Press, an independent publisher specializing in English translations of Japanese literature (including the essential LAIRS OF THE HIDDEN GODS and KAIKI horror anthologies) and the quintessentially European author Zoran Živković, arguably the most consistently brilliant purveyor of modern surreal fiction. But odd pairing or not, Kurodahan's Zoran Živković publications are nifty, being strikingly crafted and eye-pleasing, not to mention affordable and user friendly in design and layout.

In translation

Speculative Japan 3

New Tales of Japanese Science Fiction and Fantasy

The third book of our well-received Speculative Japan series, this volume brings more outstanding authors from the Japanese archipelago to English, with a selection of never-before published stories covering a broad range of speculative fiction... from gritty SF to dark fiction, enjoy a whole new dimension of the imagination!

The long-form winner was A Life on Paper: Stories by Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, translated by Edward Gauvin from the French and published by Small Beer Press.

The short-form winner was Elegy for a Young Elk by Hannu Rajaniemi, translated by by the author from the Finnish and published in Subterranean Online, Spring 2010).

As it happens, I haven't read either of these (although I intend to!), but by a curious coincidence I have read one of the other finalists: The Golden Age by Michal Ajvaz, translated by Andrew Oakland from the Czech and published by Dalkey Archive Press.

My congratulations to the winners, to the other finalists, and especially to the fine people who organized this award. I hope that it helps bring more outstanding works of SF&F into English, and contributes to a wider recognition that there ARE other languages in the world besides English!