The Ever Impressive J-Lit Center

I just received Contemporary Japanese Writers Vol. 1 from the J-Lit Center and realized that Three Percent has been totally lacking in love for this amazing cultural organization.

First off, their website has recently gone through a number of changes, and is quickly becoming an incredibly valuable resource for info on Japanese writing. The Emerging Writers in Translation section is great for introducing young authors, and the featured stories and articles are great.

Michael Emmerich’s piece on Abe Kazushige has me more excited than ever to see the translation of Sinsemillas, which is part of the most recent list of Japanese Literature Publishing Project titles.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Contemporary Japanese Writers book that arrived today is astounding. Featuring biographical and bibliographical information on 50 contemporary Japanese writers, this is a great way to find out about the contemporary lit landscape in Japan. (And the design is beautiful.)

I guess this is one of my typical cheerleader posts, but I think J-Lit is one of the most impressive cultural organizations out there and deserves more recognition.