
Writer and Japanese Translator
Translated Novels
by Akira Otani
Soho Crime 2024.07 (US)
Faber & Faber 2024.09 (UK)
CWA Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation, shortlist
CrimeFest Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award, winner
by Osamu Dazai
New Directions 2023.03
2024 Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Translation Prize, shortlist
by Mieko Kawakami
Europa Editions 2022.05 (US)
Picador 2022.05 (UK)
cotranslated with David Boyd
2022 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, finalist
2023 Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Translation Prize, runner-up
by Mieko Kawakami
Europa Editions 2021.05 (US)
Picador 2021.06 (UK)
cotranslated with David Boyd
2022 International Booker Prize, shortlist
by Mieko Kawakami
Europa Editions 2020.04 (US)
Picador 2020.08 (UK)
cotranslated with David Boyd
2021 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, shortlist
by Yukio Mishima
New Directions 2019.04
2019-2020 Japan-US Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature, winner
2019 Believer Book Award: Fiction, longlist
by NISIOISIN
Kodansha, 2018 to 2020
Four omnibus editions comprising NISIOISIN’s complete twelve-volume Katanagatari “Sword Tale” light novel saga, illuminated by footnotes written by Sam Bett for the translation
Translated Stories
by Yukio Mishima
Vintage International 2025.01
translated short story "The Dragon Flute"
by Mieko Kawakami
The New Yorker, 2024.08
translated story for summer "Flash Fiction" series
by Izumi Suzuki
Verso Books 2023.04
translated stories “Trial Witch” and “My Guy”
2023 British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Translated Short Fiction, shortlist
University of Michigan Press 2022.12
translated story “Worse for Love” by Sakakiyama Tamotsu (Yukio Mishima)
Interviews
Discussed translating comedy with Lincoln Michel for Counter Craft
2025.02.18
ABOUT SAM
Sam Bett is a fiction writer and Japanese translator whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, Freeman's and The New York Times. A winner of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize, he has translated fiction by Izumi Suzuki, Osamu Dazai, Yukio Mishima, Yoko Ogawa, Fuminori Nakamura, and Akira Otani. Working with David Boyd, he co-translated the Mieko Kawakami novels Heaven, shortlisted for the International Booker Prize; All the Lovers in the Night, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction; and Breasts and Eggs. Sam holds an MFA in Fiction from Bennington. His first novel is a romantic comedy set during the weekend of a monster shark fishing tournament in early-1990s Martha’s Vineyard.
Author photo by Danny Gugger