We are thrilled to invite you to an illuminating evening of literature and cultural exchange at our upcoming event, "Author and Translator Talk: Erika Kobayashi and Brian Bergstrom." This captivating occasion will feature esteemed author Erika Kobayashi and accomplished translator Brian Bergstrom, who will delve into the worlds of their acclaimed works, "Trinity, Trinity, Trinity" (2022) and "Sunrise" (2023).

Immerse yourself in the world of "Trinity, Trinity, Trinity" and "Sunrise" as both author and translator share their thoughts, readings, and perspectives on the novels. Engage in a meaningful dialogue that unveils the creative process, the challenges of translation, and the profound themes that these works explore.

Erika Kobayashi was born in 1978 in Tokyo, Japan. She currently lives and works in Tokyo. Kobayashi creates works that are inspired by things invisible to the eye: time and history, family and memory, and the traces left in places. She was awarded the 44th Japan Sherlock Holmes Club Encouragement Award in 2022 for her novel His Last Bow published by Kodansha, the 7th Tekken Heterotopia Literary Prize in 2020 for her novel Trinity, Trinity, Trinity, published by Shūeisha, won the the 2022-2023 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prizes (JUSFC) for the Translation of Japanese Literature for the Trinity, Trinity, Trinity, translated by Brian Bergstrom, published by Astra House. She was nominated for the 27th Mishima Yukio Award and the 151st Akutagawa Award in 2014 for her novel, Madame Curie to chōshoku o (Breakfast with Madame Curie), also published by Shūeisha. Along with her literary work, she has presented installation pieces as an artist both in Japan and internationally that enable viewers to re-experience various scenes from her writings in which the elements of fiction and documentary drift between personal narrative and social reality. Her other publications include the collection of short stories She Looks into the Mirror, the nonfictional work Shin’ai naru Kitty tachi e (Your Dear Kitty,), inspired by the diaries of Anne Frank and based on the diary of Kobayashi father, the graphic novel Hikari no kodomo 1.2.3 LUMINOUS (Children of Light: Luminous), which traces the history of the atom and radiation, and a book of her recent writings, drawings, and comics, Wasurerarenai Mono (I Can’t Forget). Kobayashi’s recent solo exhibitions include His Last Bow, Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix, London (2019); 1F in the Forest of Wild Birds, Yutaka Kikutake Gallery, Tokyo (2019); and Trinity,Karuizawa New Art Museum, Nagano (2017). Group exhibitions include Hirosaki Encounters, Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art, Aomori(2022), Image Narratives: Literature in Japanese Contemporary Art, The National Art Center, Tokyo (2019); Women Imagining Rooms: About the Diary of Lady Sarashina, Ichihara Lakeside Museum, Chiba (2019); Roppongi Crossing 2016: My Body, Your Voice, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2016); and The Radiants, Bortolami Gallery, New York (2015). US and Canada Edition “Trinity, Trinity, Trinity”Astra House , 2022 Translated by Brian Bergstrom Won the 2022-2023 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prizes (JUSFC) for the Translation of Japanese Literature France Edition “Trinity, Trinity, Trinity”éditions Dalva , 2021 Traduit par Mathilde Tamae-Buhon US and Canada Edition “Elemental”TWO LINES PRESS(“Precious Stones” ), 2021 Translated by Brian Bergstrom

Brian Bergstrom ABOUT Brian is a lecturer and translator currently based in Montréal after living in Chicago, Kyoto, and Yokohama. After graduate school at University of Chicago and Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, he has worked over ten years in the East Asian Studies Department at McGill University and has published academically in the peer-reviewed journals Mechademia, positions: asia critique, and Japan Forum on Japanese literature and contemporary society. As a translator, Brian has worked in a variety of fields for over 20 years. He specializes in literary translation, many times working closely with living authors. His published translations include the collection We, the Children of Cats by Tomoyuki Hoshino (PM Press), which was longlisted for the 2013 Best Translated Book Award, the short story “See” by Erika Kobayashi, which was the first runner-up in Asymptote’s Close Approximations Translated Fiction Contest in 2017, and The Shining Sea by Koji Suzuki, bestselling author of the Ring novels. His translation of Erika Kobayashi's novel Trinity, Trinity, Trinity was published by Astra House in 2022 and won the 2022-2023 Japan-US Friendship Commission (JUSFC) Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature, and his translation of Kobayashi's collection Sunrise: Radiant Stories is forthcoming in 2023, also from Astra House. Other translations of his have appeared in venues including Granta, Aperture, LitHub, Rikka Zine, CrimeReads, Queer: LGBTQ Writing from Ancient Times to Yesterday (Head of Zeus, 2021), and The Art and Craft of Asian Stories (Bloomsbury, 2021).