ENGLISH EDITION BOOK LAUNCH CELEBRATION

Bestseller Sakura with Author Kanako Nishi and
Translator Allison Markin Powell | Moderated by Yuki Tejima

7:00 - 8:30PM, Thursday, April 16, 2026
Murasaki Hall at the Japan Foundation, Los Angeles
(5700 Wilshire Blvd, Ste 100, Los Angeles, CA 90036)

Please register HERE
Free, RSVP Required

Celebrate the long-awaited English-language debut of Kanako Nishi with the publication of her novel, SAKURA. Kanako and her translator Allison Markin Powell will be in conversation with Yuki Tejima, who also translates and writes the blog BookNerdTokyo. The event will include a bilingual reading and discussion of contemporary Japanese literature, what it takes to bring a book into translation, and the recent influx of East Asian fiction by women writers.

Organized by the Japan Foundation, Los Angeles
In collaboration with Kanako Nishi, Allison Markin Powell
Supported by HarperCollins Publishers

SPEAKERS

Kanako NISHI

Kanako Nishi is a Japanese writer and artist. She is the author of the novels Sakura, which was a major bestseller in Japan; Tsutenkaku (Osaka Tower), which won the Sakunosuke Oda Prize; Fukuwarai (Lucky Laugh), which received the first Hayao Kawai Prize; and Saraba!, which won the prestigious Naoki prize in 2015. She was named Vogue Japan’s Woman of the Year in 2015 and among Granta’s Best of Young Japanese Novelists 2016. Several of her books have been adapted for film. Born in Tehran in 1977, Nishi grew up in Cairo and Osaka and lives in Tokyo.

Allison Markin POWELL

Allison Markin Powell is a literary translator, editor, and publishing consultant. She received the 2020 PEN America Translation Prize for The Ten Loves of Nishino by Hiromi Kawakami and a Pushcart Prize for “My Ass” by Kanako Nishi. Her other translations and co-translations include works by Osamu Dazai, Shiori Ito, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, and Kaoru Takamura.

MODERATOR

Yuki TEJIMA

Born in Tokyo and raised in Los Angeles, Yuki Tejima’s translations include Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon and How to Hold Someone in Your Heart by Mizuki Tsujimura, Someone to Watch Over You by Kumi Kimura, When the Museum is Closed by Emi Yagi, Then Why Ask Me to Come by Risa Wataya, and the follow-up to Tetsuko Kuroyanagi’s bestselling memoir, Totto-chan: The Little Girl at The Window: The Sequel.