Brian Bergstrom
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, and the short story “See” by Erika Kobayashi, which was the first runner-up in Asymptote’s Close Approximations Translated Fiction Contest in 2017.
Other translations of his have appeared in venues including Granta, Aperture, LitHub, Queer: LGBTQ Writing from Ancient Times to Yesterday (Head of Zeus, 2021), and The Art and Craft of Asian Stories (Bloomsbury, 2021).
Works
Elemental: Earth Stories
This anthology features my translation of the novella "Precious Stones," by Erika Kobayashi
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A family’s heirloom stones unearth a story spanning war, illness, and radioactivity. A pipeline installed to protect a town from flooding resultsin a howling that disturbs the townspeople. A political prisoner embarkson an epic flight toward freedom, literally blown like a kite in the wind.
Is the world ours to make? Or is it the natural world that defines—even controls—us? A whirlwind of fantastic new writing from Japan, Iran, Madagascar, Iraq, Germany, and more, this latest installment of the Calico Series maps the intimate, ongoing relationship between human civilization and the environment. Featuring fiction and reportage from eight authors working in different languages, Elemental is an awesome collection that speaks of climate catastrophe, geological time, and mythology; it’s a global gathering of engaged, innovative eco-lit.
Animals Brag About Their Bottoms, by Maki Saito
"Pink" by Tomoyuki Hoshino, in The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories
"Red" by Nakamoto Takako & "The Path to Proletarian Realism" by Kurahara Korehito, in For Dignity, Justice, and Revolution: An Anthology of Japanese Proletarian Literature
We, the Children of Cats: Stories and Novellas by Tomoyuki Hoshino
Awards and Recognition
- Runner-up in Asymptote's 2017 Close Approximations Translated Fiction Contest for my translation of "See" by Erika Kobayashi
- Longlisted for 2013 Best Translated Book Award for "We, The Children of Cats: Stories and Novellas by Tomoyuki Hoshino" (PM Press, 2012)
Press and Media Mentions
- Close Approximations: In Conversation With Fiction Runner-up, Brian Bergstrom
- Translation of "Pink" by Tomoyuki Hoshino, including Translator's Note, for Granta
- Translation for LitHub: "A Tale of Three Diaries: On Destroyed Landscapes and Lost Narratives: Erika Kobayashi Travels from Auschwitz to Fukushima"
Location
Montréal, Québec, None
Author Contact
Category
Fiction & Literature