Hideo Levy

Ian Hideo Levy (リービ 英雄, Rībi Hideo, born November 29, 1950) is an American-born Japanese language author. He was born in California and educated in Taiwan, America, and Japan.

He gained attention in Japan for his work Seijōki no Kikoenai Heya published in 1992, which won the Noma Literary Award for New Writers. He is one of the first Americans to write modern literature in Japanese. For his contributions to the introduction of Japanese literature to foreign readers he was honored with a Japan Foundation Special Prize in 2007.

In 1996 his story Tiananmen was nominated for the Akutagawa Prize.

Biography

Levy was born in 1950 to a Polish-American mother and a Jewish father. His father named him after a friend who was imprisoned in an internment camp during World War II.^[1] Levy's father was a diplomat, and the family moved around between Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States. He graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor's degree in East Asian studies, and later received his doctorate from the same school for studying Kakinomoto no Hitomaro.

After working as an assistant professor at Princeton, he moved to Stanford University and taught there. He later left and moved to Tokyo.^[2]

While at Princeton, Levy studied the Man'yōshū. His English translation of the text won him the 1982 U.S. National Book Awardin category Translation (a split award).^[3] He has referred to the Man'yōshū scholar Susumu Nakanishi as his mentor.^[4]

Works

Novels

• 『星条旗の聞こえない部屋』Seijouki no kikoenai heya（Kodansha 1992 / Kodansha Bungei Bunko 2004）
  English translation: A Room Where the Star-Spangled Banner Cannot Be Heard, trans. Christopher D. Scott (Columbia University Press, 2011)
• 『天安門』Ten'an'mon（Kodansha 1996）
• 『国民のうた』Kokumin no uta（Kodansha 1998）
• 『ヘンリーたけし レウィツキーの夏の紀行』Henrii Takeshi Rewuittsukii no natsu no kikou（Kodansha 2002）
• 『千々にくだけて』Chidi ni kudakete （Kodansha 2005 / Kodansha Bunko 2008）
• 『仮の水』Kari no mizu（Kodansha 2008）

Literary Criticism and Essays

• 『日本語の勝利』Nihongo no shouri （Kodansha 1992）
• 『新宿の万葉集』Shinjuku no man'youshuu（Asahi Shinbun 1996）
• 『アイデンティティーズ』Aidentitiizu （Kodansha 1997）
• 『最後の国境への旅』Saigo no kokkyou he no tabi（Chuou Koron Shinsha 2000）
• 『日本語を書く部屋』Nihongo wo kaku heya（Iwanami Shoten 2001）
• 『我的中国』Wareteki chuugoku（Iwanami Shoten 2004）
• 『英語でよむ万葉集』Eigo de yomu man'youshuu （Iwanami Shinsho 2004）
• 『越境の声』Ekkyou no koe （Iwanami Shoten 2007）
• 『延安 革命聖地への旅』Enan kakumei seichi he no tabi（Kodansha 2008）
• 『我的日本語 The World in Japanese』 Wareteki Nihongo: The World in Japanese (Chikuma Shobou, 2010)

Man'yōshū Scholarship

• Hitomaro and the Birth of Japanese Lyricism （Princeton University Press 1984）
• The Ten Thousand Leaves: A Translation of the Man Yoshu, Japan's Premier Anthology of Classical Poetry （Princeton Library of Asian Translations） （Princeton University Press 1987）
• 万葉恋歌 Love Songs from the Man'yoshu （Kodansha International 2000）
• Man'yo Luster 万葉集 （Pie Books 2002）

Translations

• Otohiko Kaga 錨のない船 Riding the East Wind: A Novel of War and Peace （Kodansha America 2002）

Honours and awards

• Japan Foundation Award, 2007.^[5]

References

External links

• Hideo Levy at J'Lit Books from Japan (in English)
• Synopsis of A Room Where the Star-Spangled Banner Cannot Be Heard at JLPP (Japanese Literature Publishing Project) (in English)

Speeches

• JF Video Square Video of acceptance speech for Japan Foundation Special Prize.
• The World in Japanese Literature on YouTube Video of lecture given at Stanford University Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, February 11, 2010.

Articles

• Outsider Captures Soul of Japanese, November 19, 1992, Teresa Watanabe, LA Times