Ireland’s premier literary event – International Literature Festival Dublin (ILFDublin) – is taking place from 17th – 26th May, gathering the finest writers in the world to debate, provoke, delight and enthral.

This year’s festival has an amazing line-up with the very best of Irish and international talent for you to meet at the readings, discussions, debates, workshops, performances and screenings across various venues.

Among other amazing events, we would like to highlight event and discussion with Tomoka Shibasaki  – Japanese writer in residence at ILFDublin 2019. From Osaka, Tomoka Shibasaki has won the Noma Literary New Face Prize and the Akutagawa Prize for ‘Spring Garden’, her first novel translated into English, which tells the story of Taro, a reclusive divorcee who is drawn into a strange relationship with the woman upstairs. The New York Times Book Review described ‘Spring Garden’ as, ‘Like a good meditation: quiet, surprising and deeply satisfying.’ Two of her works have been adapted for film.

Date: Thursday, 23 May 2019
Time: 6.15 p.m.
Venue: Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin
Tickets: €8 – €10, available online here: https://ilfdublin.ticketsolve.com/shows/873602946

Tomoka Shibasaki will be in conversation with her translator, Polly Barton, recently shortlisted for the Fitzcarraldo Editions essay  prize for ‘Fifty Sounds’, a record of linguistic and cultural assimilation in Japan, where she lived for seven years and became a literary translator. She was the recipient of the 2016 Kyoko Selden International Translation Prize.

Together they discuss their work and map out the territory of contemporary Japanese literature. Chaired by Martin Colthorpe, Programme Director, ILFDublin.

Presented with the support of the EU Japan Fest Japan Committee.

Full list of ILFDublin 2019 events are available here!