Professor Noriko Mizusaki is a professor of English in Daitoubunka University. A poet and translator, she was born in Tokyo, Japan, where she was brought up and educated. In 1972, she graduated from the Literature Faculty of Waseda University in Tokyo, majoring in English/American Literature. In 1975, she earned her Masters Degree in Literature Studies at Waseda University, with her thesis on Shakespeare. From 1977 to 1978, she stayed in Boston, USA, where she studied English at M.I.T. At the same time, she attended seminars and lectures for postgraduate and graduate courses on Shakespeare at Harvard University. During her stay, she also saw theatrical performances around Boston. In 1981, she completed her Ph.D in Waseda University.
One of her current major orientations is to work for international cultural exchange as a Japan-born poet, especially for English Haiku and Tanka. She has been strongly influenced by Asian-American movements, and cultural and human rights activities in the 1970’s and 1980’s. These movements tried to challenge the American societies at the time, and leading the protest, they expressed their own Asian identities and native-ness.
She was also influenced by the American Imagist poets, like Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, and other poets who took interest in Asian cultures, especially Chinese and Japanese, such as: Japanese floating pictures, haiku poems, calligraphy, ink brushing pictures, Zen faith, and oriental gardens, which they researched and introduced to English culture and poetry.
Awards:
Professor Misuzaki’s poems have been translated into Italian, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Greek, Macedonian, Slovakian, Korean, Chinese, Mongolian, Spanish, Portuguese, and English.
