Sam Bett

Sam Bett (b. 1986) is a writer and a translator. In 2016 he was awarded Grand Prize by the Japanese government in the 2nd JLPP International Translation Competition, for which he translated “Runs from Scissors” by Toshiyuki Horie, which appears in Two Lines 27. Sam operates the translation service Best Bett Japanese, and is a founder and host of Us&Them, the quarterly Brooklyn-based reading series devoted to showcasing the work of writers who also translate. His translation of Yukio Mishima’s Star (New Directions, 2019) won the 2019/2020 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission (JUSFC) Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. With David Boyd, he is co-translating the novels of Mieko Kawakami for Europa Editions. (Photo credit: Eskil Vestre)