Happy International Women’s Day!

Let’s celebrate! 🥂

Ways to celebrate IWD 💐

· Check out IWD in-person or online events in your area

· Educate yourself on women’s rights and issues. Here are some great websites to get you started:

o https://www.internationalwomensday.com/

o https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/discrimination/womens-rights/

o https://www.unwomen.org/en

· Volunteer at or donate to a women’s shelter or other charity dedicated to helping women and girls

· On your social media use the hashtags #IWD2025 and #AccelerateAction to engage in conversations, share your personal stories, or spotlight women you know who are making a difference

· If you’re a woman, buy yourself the flowers!

Music break 🎵

I thought another fun way we could celebrate this day together would be to create a community playlist! I’ve made a collaborative playlist on Spotify with empowering anthems to celebrate IWD and our book club. Add your favorite girl power jams before the link expires in 6 days!

Speaking of music, in All the Lovers in the Night, Fuyuko is given a recording of Chopin’s Berceuse. In my podcast at the end of the month, I will do a more in-depth analysis of the use of this song in the novel but give it a listen while or after you read and notice how you feel, or whether it enhances your reading experience.

Author Spotlight 👏

If you are enjoying the book so far, and curious to know more about Kawakami and her work, check out this article by The Guardian, that highlights an interview she did with Haruki Murakami. Even if you know nothing about Japanese literature, you may have at least heard his name. I adore his work, but even fans, myself included, acknowledge that the way he writes his female characters is problematic. In the interview, Kawakami confronts him about the inherent sexism in his novels. She is using her platform and status to not only change the landscape of Japanese fiction, but to speak up for women in Japan. Lord knows it’s needed! In the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Gender Gap Report, Japan ranked the lowest of the G7 Nations. So, let’s give a round of applause to Kawakami-san for working to break the status quo!

Lost in Translation 🤔

In last week’s newsletter, I touched on some issues women face in the publishing industry. In my research for this book club, I discovered that so many countries have very few published women authors, and even fewer translated into English. I will delve deeper into challenges for women in global publishing at a later date, but today I would like to explore a specific obstacle and how it pertains to women authors: translation.

All the Lovers in the Night took 11 years to get translated into English. Another book I had considered for this book club, A Perfect Day to Be Alone by Nanae Aoyama, took 17 years to reach the English-speaking market despite winning Japan’s most prestigious literary award. The delays in translating these works could be attributed to several factors:

· Market dynamics

It makes sense that publishers would prioritize works they believe will have immediate commercial success. Unfortunately, fiction from non-Western authors is often perceived by the big publishing houses as a niche market. Women’s writing is often dismissed as “domestic” or wrongly assumed to be “less universal,” making it an even harder sell.

· International translation gap

In the case of Japan, even when women do achieve success, their work is less likely to be translated compared to their male counterparts. There’s a bias in what international publishers choose to bring over—often prioritizing books that fit pre-existing Western expectations of Japanese literature (think Haruki Murakami).

· History and prizes

Historically, men have been more frequently translated than women in part because they have won the most international prizes. Many publishers and readers discover new authors through these prizes. So, fewer women winners = fewer women translated.

· Translation resources

High-quality literary translation requires skilled translators and financial investment. Limited availability of qualified translators or budget constraints can slow the process.

· Cultural nuances

Capturing the essence of the culture and societal nuances in English can be challenging, potentially causing publishers to proceed cautiously. I have been reading translated Japanese literature for almost two decades. But after living in Japan for the last three and a half years, I now have a greater appreciation for all translators, but especially Japanese to English translators because I can appreciate the difficulty in working through the linguistical and cultural nuances in order to effectively convey the story to an English-speaking audience.

Change is on the way 🌱

In 2023, Publisher’s Weekly reported that only 30% of new fiction titles translated to English were written by women. When academic nonfiction and re-translations were considered, that rate was even lower.

Sounds pretty grim, I know. But it's worth noting that the global literary community has seen a growing interest in translated works in recent years, prompting publishers to explore and invest in such projects more actively. Researcher and translator, Meytal Radzinski, founded the Women in Translation (WiT) Project, a global movement centering on the idea that women who write in languages other than English deserve to have their stories read on a wider scale.

This is why what we’re doing in this book club is so important. By reading and discussing books by women from around the world, we’re showing the publishing industry and the international literary sphere that women’s voices are not niche—they are essential. The more we engage with these works, the more we create demand for diverse stories, ensuring that incredible books like All the Lovers in the Night don’t take years to reach us.

If you’re interested in exploring more women in Japanese literature, check out this blog post featuring 31 Japanese women writers. My favorites are Yoko Ogawa, Kanae Minato and Natsuo Kirino.

Call to action 📣

Feel free to answer one or all of these questions:

1. The Women in Translation (WiT) Project is working to highlight underrepresented voices. What are some ways readers (and book clubs like ours!) can help accelerate change in publishing?

2. Mieko Kawakami challenged Murakami on the way he writes women in his books. Do you think male authors have a responsibility to write women more authentically? Or is it fair to say that all writers are limited by their own perspectives?

3. Japan ranked the lowest of all G7 nations in the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report (2024). How do you think literature can play a role in shifting cultural attitudes toward gender equality?

4. The #IWD2025 and #AccelerateAction hashtags can encourage online discussions. But using social media as a tool for activism also has the potential for “slacktivism,” where people feel like they’re taking action by simply liking and sharing posts without taking any real action, or worse, it just becomes performative. How can we ensure that online activism—like using hashtags for International Women’s Day—translates into real-world impact? Have you ever seen an example of social media activism leading to meaningful change?

Happy Reading!

Morgan