The annual Nick Virgilio Performance Series will host poet, translator, and professor Sawako Nakayasu on campus Wednesday, February 26, for both a workshop and performance. This series, made possible by a bequest from the estate of Camden-based poet Nick Virgilio, brings to campus literary artists and translators who are working in the tradition of Japanese haiku, its global iterations, or contemporary Japanese forms.
Sawako Nakayasu will be sharing her translations of the short, haiku-like poems by the Japanese poet Kawata Ayane, as well as translations of the modernist poet Sagawa Chika. Nakayasu will also read excerpts from her two forthcoming books, Pink Waves (Omnidawn, 2020) and Some Girls Walk Into the Country They Are From (Wave Books, 2021).
Sawako’s performance will take place a 7 p.m. in the Digital Commons and she will host a translation workshop at 3 p.m. in the Writers House (305 Cooper Street). For the workshop, no previous translation experience or knowledge of Japanese is necessary. Registration for the performance and workshop is requested. Contact Leah Falk (leah.falk@camden.rutgers.edu) directly to RSVP for the workshop.