THURSDAY, May 1, 2025
4:30– 6:30pm
Location: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Aoko Matsuda, who is featured in almost every volume of MONKEY, represents a significant, award-winning voice in contemporary Japanese literature, distinguished by her incisive social commentary and innovative narrative techniques that interrogate gender politics and cultural conventions in Japanese society.
Beyond her accomplishments as an author, Matsuda has gained international recognition as a literary translator. She has skillfully rendered works by acclaimed writers such as Karen Russell, Amelia Gray, and Carmen Maria Machado into Japanese. Through her frequent contributions to Japanese media outlets, she serves as a compelling public intellectual who illuminates structural inequalities and cultural contradictions in contemporary Japan from a feminist perspective.