By streamlining the publication process, Matthew enables authors and publishers to focus on what they do best. He understands the importance of not only identifying potential markets and publishers but also creating content that audiences want to read, own, and share.
As a published translator and editor, Matthew empowers writers and other content creators to share their unique identities, authentically, through their tones and their voices, to create engaging, readable content that succeeds internationally. He believes that translation must sound right, with its own rhythm and cadence; that translation is an art; and that an author’s spirit must be preserved. Matthew helps authors build a global following through more than just accuracy.
From creating published translations for Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando and best-selling author Motohiko Izawa, to editing highly technical translations for Nikon Precision Inc., Matthew’s more than decade-long career as a translator and editor spans a variety of literary genres, technical fields, and writing styles. Matthew continues to help authors, institutions, and companies share their works with English-language readers across the world.
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In these highlights from lectures delivered at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Architecture, Ando candidly describes his experiences as a largely self-taught practitioner, tracing his development from an early interest in the traditional building craft of his native Japan through his political awakening in the turbulent 1960s to his current stature as one of the world’s foremost architects. In addition to exploring his aesthetic influences and working process, Ando offers students a road map not only for maintaining professional integrity, but also for becoming effective agents of change in the world. (Courtesy of PA Press)
Working directly with architect Tadao Ando and his office, Matthew transformed Ando’s Kenchiku wo kataru (Talking About Architecture, University of Tokyo Press), a perennially best-selling and beloved autobiographical guide to architecture and life, into an English-language book sold in stores around the world. Matthew embraced the challenge of faithfully reflecting the unique voice and vision of one of the world’s greatest living architects by establishing a close relationship with author and publisher. After crafting proposals and successfully identifying suitable publishers, Matthew translated, edited, and compiled Ando’s 300 pages of Japanese text into an original 100-page book of meticulously crafted prose and thoughtfully selected images and captions. In faithfully and clearly recreating Ando’s narrative, Matthew gives non-Japanese readers an unprecedented glimpse into one of the world’s most creative minds. Tadao Ando: Conversations with Students is now one of Princeton Architectural Press’ top ten best-selling titles in architecture and is currently in its second printing.
An Upside-Down History of the World, written by author of the best-selling series Gyakusetsu no Nihonshi (The Paradoxical History of Japan), leads readers on an unapologetic and revealing journey across centuries, cultures, and civilizations to explore humanity’s most enigmatic questions. From the perspective of the non-academic, Izawa the historian, mystery writer, and journalist avoids the predominant Eurocentricism of world history, overturning popular notions of East and West to expose and explore conventional history’s many “blind spots.” Izawa’s breadth of knowledge of his native Japan shape an accessible history of seemingly disparate cultural and civilizational trends. From Japanese philosophy to the Pyramids, to Mao and modern Japanese media, Izawa sheds light on who we are and how we got here, through all of civilization’s rises and falls.
In An Upside-Down History of the World, Matthew has carefully preserved Edogawa Rampo Literary Award-winner Motohiko Izawa’s distinctive style of thought-provoking, page-turning journalistic prose. Matthew celebrates Izawa’s unique critical perspective of world history while maintaining a strong human aspect, balancing the transformation of often sensitive and difficult-to-translate Japanese-language-specific content with the creation of non-fiction that English-language readers will comprehend and enjoy. While providing all facets of translation and editing in what is the first translation of Izawa’s work, Matthew, together with publisher Shogakukan Inc., continues to bring new perspectives on the story of humankind to the English-speaking world.
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