I’m a graduate of Indiana University in Japanese Language and Linguistics, having previously studied Japanese Language and Culture at Eastern Kentucky University. I attended the British Centre for Literary Translation Summer School in 2012 working on a collaborative translation of 古川日出男 FURUKAWA Hideo’s Horses, Horses, Despite Everything the Light is Still Pure 馬たちよ、それでも光は無垢で with the author, Michael Emmerich, and ten other students. Read it here.

My academic interests are in Taishō and early Shōwa culture, women’s literature, proletarian literature (プロレタリア文学・ルンペン文学), and diaries.  I also have a strong academic background in labor history.

I’m still new to literary translation and may make lots of mistakes. Please correct me if you can, or just tell me when things are awkward. My dual goals for this blog are to: (a) improve, and (b) bring more attention to under-translated authors and ideas. I have to do (a) before I can effectively do (b).

I live in North London and seem to spend most of my time on the top deck of buses.

My non-academic interests include SF, comics, college basketball, cinema, Mexican food (the eternal obsession of all American expats everywhere), Bluegrass, noise and indie music, and figuring out the English.  I play the guitar, dulcimer, toy piano, and maracas, to varying degrees of success.

You can and should email me at:  mo.giles @ gmail . com.

Interested in hiring me?

A 300 yen photo machine in Kyoto in 2006 thought I looked like this: