Akino KondohAkino Kondoh

Born in Chiba, Japan, in 1980, Akino Kondoh is an artist, cartoonist, and animator known for her striking, minimalist compositions, often executed with nothing more than pencil and watercolor. Kondoh graduated from Tama Art University with a BA in graphic design in 2003. Kondoh has exhibited internationally, earning funding from the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunka-cho), and the Pola Art Foundation. She was also awarded a residency in New York and received the support and collaboration of jazz musician John Zorn, who has used her art on his album covers. In 2010, the animated version of her “Ladybirds’ Requiem” was named to the top 25 list in the biennial showcase “YouTube Play - A Biennial of Creative Video” at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In 2000, Kondoh won the second AX Manga Newcomer's Award; and in 2002, her animation “The Evening Traveling,” in which girls dance rhythmically to a music by Toshiaki Chiku, was awarded the Grand Prix of the DIGISTA Awards’ Animation Division.

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Jocelyne Allen is a Japanese translator based in Toronto, Canada, after a decade in Japan. During her time in the Land of the Rising Sun, she worked as a magazine columnist, interpreted for foreign correspondents, and toured with a Japanese drum group. Her recent translations include the Toh EnJoe story “Silverpoint” in the collection Ruptured Fiction(s) of the Earthquake, Shigeru Mizuki’s Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, and Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s Fallen Words. She is also the author of the novel You and the Pirates. She blogs at www.brainvsbook.com

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