Motoyuki Shibata teaches American literature and literary translation at the University of Tokyo. Authors he has translated include Edward Gorey, Paul Auster, Steve Erickson, Steven Millhauser, Richard Powers, Stuart Dybek, Rebecca Brown, and Barry Yourgrau. The American Narcissus, his collection of critical essays, received the Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities in 2005. Shibata also translates Japanese to English, and he has received numerous awards for his work translating in both directions.