Yui Kajita

I am a translator, illustrator, and literary scholar, originally from the countryside in Kyoto, Japan, and currently based in Germany.

About me

Storytelling is a common thread that runs through everything I do—listening in to stories told by others and letting them be heard in new ways.

As a translator, I work on modern and contemporary prose, poetry, children’s books, manga, folktales, and texts related to art. As an illustrator, I create dreamlike, whimsical worlds with a touch of poetry, mainly using ink, watercolor, and colored pencils.

I completed my PhD in English literature at the University of Cambridge in 2019. To stay close to what I love, I started exploring a career in literary translation and illustration around 2020. My translation of Run with the Wind, a sports novel classic by the award-winning author Shion Miura, was published by HarperVia in October 2024. You can find a list of my publications here.

Experienced in collaborative work, I was a member of the Japan Past & Present Sources in Translation Planning Team in 2022, designing a multilingual, comprehensive database for the joint initiative between UCLA and Waseda University. 

I’m most at peace when I’m getting lost in drawing, sinking into a book, or exploring nature. A wide river flows through my hometown in Japan, surrounded by rice fields, bamboo forests, and mountains, and in New York, I grew up on a sycamore-lined street close to the sea. Now I draw inspiration from taking long walks in the woods and hiking in the mountains whenever I can get away.

Education

• University of Cambridge, Ph.D. in English Literature (2015–19)
• University of Cambridge, M.Phil. in Modern and Contemporary Literature (2014–15)
• Doshisha University, B.A. in English Literature (2010–14)

Selected Awards

• BCLA John Dryden Translation Competition (2022): Longlisted (Poems by Yosano Akiko, co-translated with Clara Marino)
• SCBWI-LA #KTIllustrates Contest (2021): Runner-up (Prompt: “Here you will find the dragon’s secret.”)
• The 5th JLPP International Translation Competition (2021): Shortlisted (Texts by Seiko Tanabe and Hiromi Ito)
• The Thomas Hardy Society Journal Cover Design Competition (2019): Winner
• University of Cambridge, Faculty of English, Member’s English Fund Scholarship for Academic Merit (2018)
• The Thomas Hardy Association Student Essay Prize (2018): First Place (Title: “Hardy’s Questioning”)
• JASSO Postgraduate Scholarship for PhD (2015-18) and MPhil (2014-15)
• Ikuei Award for Academic Excellence, Doshisha University (2012)
• The 5th Kyorin University Translation Contest (2009): First Place (Children’s story, EN to JP)

The words going out into the room seemed like actual presences, hard and independent; yet as she was listening they were changed by their contact with her.

– Virginia Woolf