Since Fukushima -- Ryoichi Wago

<p>In the days following the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011, poet Wago Ryoichi started a twitter feed. Living just 80 km away from the failed nuclear reactor, he sheltered in his apartment and bared witness to the unfolding devastation. This collection begins with excerpts from those original tweets and follows ten years of Wago's writing. The poems consider not just the human toll of the disaster but place the devastation of the land, the animals, and ways of life of Fukushima Prefecture on equal footing. </p><p><br></p><p><strong>Wago Ryoichi</strong> is a poet and high school Japanese literature teacher from Fukushima city, Japan. In 2017, the French translation of his book, <em>Pebbles of Poetry, </em>won the Nunc Magazine award for best foreign-language poetry collection. Since March 2011, his writing has focused on the ecological devastation of the areas affected by the Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi power station. His poem <em>Abandoned Fukushima</em> is sung by choirs across Japan as a prayer for hope and renewal.</p><p><br></p><p>Ayako Takahashi and Judy Halebsky work collaboratively to translate poetry between English and Japanese. <strong>Ayako Takahashi</strong> is a scholar and translator teaching at University of Hyogo in Japan. Her most recent publication is a book of scholarship titled, <em>Reading Gary Snyder</em>. She has published translations of many American poets such as Jane Hirshfield,