معرفی
Sawako Nakayasu is an Associate Professor of Literary Arts at Brown University, where she teaches contemporary poetics, translation, and performance-based writing. Her work bridges language experimentation, cross-cultural translation, and interdisciplinary performance, with a focus on transpacific poetics and feminist literary practices. She has authored multiple poetry collections including Some Girls Walk Into The Country They Are From (Wave Books, 2020) and Pink Waves (Omnidawn, 2022), and edited volumes such as A Transpacific Poetics (Litmus Press). Her translations of Japanese poets like Chika Sagawa and Takashi Hiraide have expanded access to East Asian literary traditions in English.
- Primary affiliations: Brown University Department of Literary Arts
- Research emphasizes experimental poetics, multilingualism, and performance art
- Co-editor of a forthcoming New Directions anthology of 20th-century Japanese poetry
Her performances, such as Insect Country and collaborations with dancers and musicians, explore intersections between text and bodily movement. She has presented work globally at venues including the Queensland Poetry Festival, the University of Arizona Poetry Center, and numerous AWP conferences. Nakayasu's practice interrogates translation as creative act, advocating for translation's role in generating new artistic possibilities beyond fidelity to source texts.
Teaching focuses on innovative writing practices and the politics of language, with courses addressing experimental poetry forms, cross-cultural writing, and the materiality of text. Her work has been featured in journals like HTML GIANT and Quarterly Conversation, with critical attention to her contributions to contemporary poetics.
