New Books in Language and Translation Hiromi Ito, "The Thorn Puller" (Stone Bridge Press, 2022)
Mar 20, 2026
Jeffrey Angles, translator and professor of Japanese known for prize-winning translations, discusses Hiromi Ito’s The Thorn Puller. He recounts discovering Ito, her groundbreaking 1980s poetry on pregnancy and sexuality, and her later turn to immigrant life and death. He also explores the translation process, Ito’s blend of prose and poetry, and the Sugamo thorn-pulling Jizo motif.
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Use Magazine Serialization To Launch Translations
- Publishers can incubate translations via literary magazines, using serial excerpts to build interest before full publication.
- Monkey magazine printed about one-third of The Thorn Puller and helped launch Stonebridge Press's Monkey imprint to publish the complete translation.
How A Conference Panel Launched A Translator Relationship
- Jeffrey Angles first met Hiromi Ito after organizing a conference panel in San Diego and invited her to speak.
- They spent hours talking at her home, which led Angles to translate and publish her first English collection, Killing Kanoko, in 2009.
Earlier Translations Built Audience For Ito In English
- After publishing Killing Kanoko in 2009, Angles released Wild Grass on the Riverbank in 2016, a book-length poem about a family's move to America.
- Wild Grass found readers interested in Asian American literature originally written in Japanese, encouraging further translations like The Thorn Puller.
