Abstract

Ryoichi Wago was born and still lives in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, where he works as a high school teacher and is active as a poet.
On March 11, 2011, he was struck by the Great East Japan Earthquake. He was struck by the overwhelming destruction and invisible radioactive contamination caused by the nuclear power plant accident, and continued to post the reality of the situation on Twitter. Wago's messages were compiled into a book of poems entitled "Shi no Tsubute (Pebbles of Poetry)" (published by Tokuma Shoten), which was highly acclaimed around the world.
This book traces Wago's journey as he continues to confront the disaster in poetry 10 years after the disaster.

Author’s Information

Born in Fukushima City, Japan, in 1968. Won the 4th Nakahara Nakaya Prize for his first collection of poems. After the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, he posted poems on Twitter and published three books simultaneously which received a great response. For his post-disaster activities, he has received the Minyu Kenmin Grand Prize, the NHK Tohoku Culture Award, and others. His masterpiece "Shi no Tsubute (Pebbles of Poetry)" was a finalist for the Shincho Document Prize and the Nobuo Ayukawa Prize, and won the foreign-language poetry category of the inaugural Prix de poesie de la revue Nunc, which is sponsored by French cultural magazine Nunc. (the first time in history that a Japanese poet has won a poetry prize in France, the home of poetry).