Kazumi Saeki
Encyclopedia
is a Japanese novelist from Sendai in Miyagi prefecture. Kazumi (meaning one wheat) is his pen name, adopted because of his fondness for Van Gogh's paintings of wheat fields.
His experiences in the 2011 Great Tohoku Kanto Earthquake
were recounted in an op-ed piece in the New York Times under the title, "In Japan, No Time Yet for Grief" translated by Seiji M. Lippit.
After graduating from high school he moved to Tokyo and worked various jobs including in magazines and as an electrician for 10 years. In the op-ed he writes:
"Before I became a writer, I worked for 10 years as an electrician, until I suffered asbestos poisoning. My main job was to travel around Tokyo, repairing lights, including street lamps and the hallway and stairway lights in apartment buildings."
His 1990 novel Short Circuit was based on those experiences working as an electrician. The following year, 1991, he returned with his wife to his hometown of Sendai, where he has lived since.
In 1997 he spent a year in Norway, writing about those experiences in the novel Norge, for which he received the 2007 Noma Literary Prize
.
His experiences in the 2011 Great Tohoku Kanto Earthquake
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
The 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku, also known as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, or the Great East Japan Earthquake, was a magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST on Friday, 11 March 2011, with the epicenter approximately east...
were recounted in an op-ed piece in the New York Times under the title, "In Japan, No Time Yet for Grief" translated by Seiji M. Lippit.
After graduating from high school he moved to Tokyo and worked various jobs including in magazines and as an electrician for 10 years. In the op-ed he writes:
"Before I became a writer, I worked for 10 years as an electrician, until I suffered asbestos poisoning. My main job was to travel around Tokyo, repairing lights, including street lamps and the hallway and stairway lights in apartment buildings."
His 1990 novel Short Circuit was based on those experiences working as an electrician. The following year, 1991, he returned with his wife to his hometown of Sendai, where he has lived since.
In 1997 he spent a year in Norway, writing about those experiences in the novel Norge, for which he received the 2007 Noma Literary Prize
Noma Literary Prize
The Noma Literary Prize was established in 1941 by the Noma Service Association in accordance with the last wishes of Noma Seiji , founder and first president of the Kōdansha publishing company. The Noma Literary Prize has been awarded annually to an outstanding new work published in Japan...
.