Yoko Tawada with Monique Truong

Japan Society and Rizzoli Bookstore proudly welcome the internationally renowned writer Yoko Tawada for a rare New York appearance on the heels of the English publication of her novel Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel, translated by Susan Bernofsky, and the second installment in her beloved Scattered trilogy, Suggested in the Stars, translated by Margaret Mitsutani.

Tawada will be in conversation with Monique Truong followed by a signing at Rizzoli Bookstore (1133 Broadway). This evening is co-presented by PEN America and Japan Society. It does NOT take place at Japan Society.

PLEASE NOTE: RSVPs are encouraged but not required. This event is mixed seated/standing. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served. Doors open at 5:30 pm.

Yoko Tawada was born in Tokyo in 1960, moved to Hamburg when she was 22, and then to Berlin in 2006. She writes in both Japanese and German, and has published several books—stories, novels, poems, plays, essays—in both languages. She has received numerous awards for her writing including the Akutagawa Prize, the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize, the Tanizaki Prize, the Kleist Prize, the Goethe Medal and the National Book Award. New Directions publishes her story collections Where Europe Begins (with a Preface by Wim Wenders) and Facing the Bridge, as well her novels The Naked Eye, The Bridegroom Was a Dog, Memoirs of a Polar Bear, The Emissary, Scattered All over the Earth, Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel, Suggested in the Stars, and forthcoming in autumn 2025 is Archipelago of the Sun, the final novel in her Scattered trilogy.

Born in Saigon, South Vietnam (now Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam), Monique Truong came to the U.S. as a refugee in 1975. She’s a novelist, essayist, children’s book author and librettist. Her novels are The Sweetest Fruits (Viking, 2019), Bitter in the Mouth (Random House, 2010), and the national bestseller The Book of Salt (Houghton Mifflin, 2003). Her children’s picture book Mai’s Áo Dài (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2025) is co-written with Thai Nguyen and illustrated by Dung Ho. With Barbara Tran and Khoi Luu, she co-edited Watermark: Vietnamese American Poetry & Prose, 25th Anniversary Edition (Texas Tech University Press/DVAN Series, 2023). A graduate of Yale College and Columbia Law School, she’s the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Princeton University’s Hodder Fellowship, Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award, Bard Fiction Prize, and John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, among other honors.

PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.

Since 1964, Rizzoli Bookstore has been a New York City institution and one of the country’s most storied independent bookstores. Now located in the historic St. James Building, we are a few blocks from Madison Square Park and dozens of dining and retail destinations, accessible by nine subway lines and New Jersey PATH. Rizzoli hosts in-person events in our salon. The space is New York’s preeminent destination for illustrated book events, featuring the most well-regarded designers, photographers, artists, architects, musicians, and cookbook authors working today. Literary events are also staples along with exciting new voices, leading Italian authors, and New York Times bestsellers.

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Japan Society’s 120th anniversary initiatives and related programs are generously supported by Champion Sponsor, MUFG Bank, Ltd.

Japan Society programs are supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional support for cultural programs is provided by an anonymous donor and the Sandy Heck Lecture Fund.