Prof. Barbara Summerhawk (Dept of English and American Literature) won a 2009 Golden Crown Literary Award (Anthology Section) for her Sparkling Rain (New Victoria Publishers, 2008). This is an anthology of short stories written by Japanese lesbians and bisexual writers. Prof. Summerhawk translated them from Japanese to English and had it published in U.S. The social situation in which Japanese lesbians and bisexuals are placed is crystallized throughout the book.
Prof. Summerhawk, delighted with the prize, said that she’d like to hold a forum in which the audience from the English-speaking countries can hear the voices from Japanese lesbian and bisexual writers.