Sawako Nakayasu was born in Japan and has lived mostly in the US since the age of six. She is the author of two books of poetry, and two forthcoming books: Hurry Home Honey (Burning Deck) and Texture Notes (Letter Machine). She has received grants from the NEA and PEN for translating the work of contemporary and modern poets from Japan, including Chika Sagawa and Takashi Hiraide. Books of translations include Four From Japan (Litmus Press, 2006), and To the Vast Blooming Sky (Seeing Eye Books, 2007) by Sagawa, as well as the forthcoming For the Fighting Spirit of the Walnut (New Directions, 2008) by Hiraide. She edits the journal Factorial, which frequently publishes works in translation, and her own poetry has been translated into Japanese, Swedish, Arabic, and Vietnamese.
Visit Sawako's blog, Insect Tutleage.
Listen to her reading at the Segue Series. PENNsound also features a reading she gave from at So we have been given time Or at Amherst Books in 2004.
Interviews with Sawako can be found on MiPOesias, and Chicago Postmodern Poetry.
Her chapbook, Insect Country, printed in a limited edition by Dusie Press, can be viewed online. (P.S. Several of Dusie's chapbooks are "D-I-Y Printables," available online in .pdf form, so you can print them yourself!)
PennSound presents Sawako Nakayasu reading "Capacity"
reviews of Sawako Nakayasu's work: