September 18, 4pm @ Humanities Center (Cathedral of Learning Room 602)
Ms. Arai will read a selection of her poems in Japanese and with English translation. Please join us for a poetry reading by Takako Arai at the University of Pittsburgh on September 18.
Where: Cathedral of Learning Rm 602 (Humanities Center), 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15260 | When: September 18, 4 PM | Check out our flyer for more details!
Takako Arai was born in 1966 in Kiryu City, Gunma Prefecture to a family engaged in textile manufacturing, a traditional industry in Kiryu. Arai is known for writing socially engaged poetry. She writes in particular about the lives of working women as they are affected by such forces as globalization, economic decline, and the 2011 triple disaster in northeastern Japan.
Takako Arai, who will be in Pittsburgh for two readings Sep 18-19, is in the U.S. as part of The University of Iowa’s prestigious creative writing residency, the International Writers Program. Her work has been translated into English by Jeffrey Angles and Sawako Nakayasu as Soul Dance (Mi'Te Press), Four from Japan (Litmus Press), Poems of Hiromi Ito, Toshiko Hirata, and Takako Arai (Vagabond Press), and Poet to Poet: Contemporary Women Poets from Japan (Recent Work Press).
On September 19, Ms. Arai will give a public reading at City of Asylum as a guest of this year’s Pittsburgh Poetry and Jazz Festival. Alphabet City, 40 W. North Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15212 September 19, 7 – 9 PM
https://iwp.uiowa.edu/residency/participants-by-region/Japan
https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/contributor/takako-arai