Geraldine Harcourt

Geraldine Millais Harcourt (25 May 1952 – 21 June 2019) was a New Zealand translator of modern Japanese literature.

Early life and education

Harcourt was born in Auckland on 25 May 1952. She graduated from the University of Auckland, and first went to Japan in 1973.

Career

Harcourt developed a close working relationship with Japanese fiction writer YÅ«ko Tsushima, and translated many of her works into English. These include:

• YÅ«ko Tsushima, Child of Fortune (1978)
• YÅ«ko Tsushima, Territory of Light (1979)
• YÅ«ko Tsushima, Woman Running in the Mountains (1980)
• YÅ«ko Tsushima, The Shooting Gallery & Other Stories (1973–1984)
• YÅ«ko Tsushima, Of Dogs and Walls (2018)

Works by other Japanese authors translated into English by Harcourt include:

• Shizuko Gō, Requiem (1985)
• Hirotada Ototake, No One's Perfect (1998)
• YÅ«ko Tanaka, The Power of the Weave: The Hidden Meanings of Cloth (2013)
• Takeshi Nakagawa, The Japanese House in Space, Memory, and Language (2006)

Awards

In 1990, Harcourt was awarded the Wheatland Translation Prize. She won the 2018–2019 Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize for her translation of Territory of Light, published by Penguin in 2017.

Death

Harcourt died in Wellington on 21 June 2019.

References