Alison Watts

Literary translator from Japanese to English
Translator
Available for:
Festivals and other events, Translation

I translate literary works from Japanese to English. 

Forthcoming

The Secondhand Bookshop Cafe, by Hika Harada, Scribner UK, August 10, 2027

Published

How to Use 3,000 Yen, by by Hika Harada, Scribner UK, September, 2026

What You are Looking For Is in the Library, by Michiko Aoyama, Doubleday, 2023
The Boy and the Dog, by Seishu Hase, Scribner, UK, 2022 
Spark, by Naoki Matayoshi, Pushkin Press, 2020

Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight, by Riku Onda, Bitter Lemon Press, 2022

The Aosawa Murders, by Riku Onda, Bitter Lemon Press, 2020 
Sweet Bean Paste, by Durian Sukegawa, Oneworld Publications, 2017

Awards

2024:  Shortlisted for Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Prize for What You Are Looking For is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama
2023:  Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Prize for The Boy and the Dog by Seishu Hase
2021:  Kyoko Selden Memorial Japanese Translation Prize, awarded by Cornell University for an excerpt from Durian Sukegawa’s travel memoir A Dosimeter on the Narrow Road to Oku