Asa Yoneda named to shortlist for International Booker Prize

Asa Yoneda, UNC Charlotte instructor of Japanese translation, was named to the shortlist for the International Booker Prize, the world’s most influential award for translated fiction. Yoneda’s translation of “Under the Eye of the Big Bird,” by Hiromi Kawakami, is one of six finalists on the shortlist.

The list celebrates the best works of long-form fiction or collections of short stories translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between May 1, 2024 and April 30, 2025, as judged by this year’s award panel. The authors and translators of the six books who make the shortlist are each awarded £2,500, with the winning author and translator splitting £50,000. The 2025 winner of the International Booker Prize will be announced in London during a ceremony on May 20.  

“Hiromi Kawakami is one of the most respected, beloved and hilarious authors writing in Japanese right now, and this book is by far my favorite of hers,” said Yoneda. “The novel contains many different narrative voices that gradually reveal more about the future/fantasy world they inhabit, so I had fun working with the subtle differences between them, and the slow reveals of what’s going on.”

The judges described the 278-page work of dystopian fiction as “mind- and heart-expanding,” making the shortlist because the “visionary strangeness is utterly enchanting; it’s like spending time in a parallel universe, but navigating with a map made of contemporary feelings.”

As faculty in the College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences, Yoneda imparts translation advice to the students she teaches. 

“We’re looking for the zone where form and function, or accuracy and effectiveness, become the same thing,” said Yoneda.

It is hard to overstate the prestige of being shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, according to Anabel Aliaga-Buchenau, chair of the Department of Languages, Culture and Translation at UNC Charlotte. 

“It’s a prize that recognizes the incredible creativity of the author, and also the work a translator does,” said Aliaga-Buchenau.

“Every shortlistee is a worthy winner, and I’m excited to have the opportunity to travel to London and spend a little time with the other authors and translators involved in this year’s selection,” said Yoneda.

Read more about Yoneda and the 2025 International Booker Prize.