Events

Time and Location

November 2, 6:00pm
Bibliotheque (New York, NY)

November 3, 4:30pm
302 Frist Campus Center at Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)

About

The Japan Foundation (JF) is inviting writer Jose Ando to the USA and Canada. For the US part, he will have two talk events.

On November 2 in New York City, he will join a conversation moderated by Sam Bett, focusing primarily on his novel Jackson Alone, which was published in English translation by Soho Press in January this year.

On November 3 in Princeton, he will be joined by special guest Keiichiro Hirano for a conversation exploring not only his novels but also the current landscape of the contemporary Japanese literature moderated by Professor Kinohi Shibata.

About Jackson Alone:

Four Black Japanese gay men team up against a culture where discrimination is deep-seated and revenge is a click away.

Nobody at the corporate offices of Athletius, Japan knows much about the massage therapist Jackson—but rumors abound. He used to work as a model. He likes to party. He’s mixed race—half-Japanese, half-somewhere-in-Africa-n. He might be gay. Fueling the gossip is the sudden appearance of a violent pornographic video featuring a man who looks like Jackson.

When Jackson meets three other queer mixed-race guys, he learns he’s not the only one being targeted. They concoct a plan: find out who’s responsible and, in the meantime, switch identities and play tricks on people—a boyfriend, a boss—who’ve wronged them, exploiting the fact that nobody can seem to tell them apart.

A short, blistering gut punch of a novel, Jackson Alone is at turns satirical and deadpan, angry and tender.

About Jose Ando:

Jose Ando was born and raised in Tokyo, and is of African-Asian heritage. His debut novel Jackson Alone was awarded the 59th Bungei Prize. It was also shortlisted for the Akutagawa Prize, as was his second novel, The Camouflaged Man. His third novel, Dtopia, won the 172nd Akutagawa Prize, solidifying his presence as one of Japan’s brightest young literary stars.

About Keiichiro Hirano:

Keiichiro Hirano is an award-winning Japanese author who debuted with “Eclipse” and won the Akutagawa Prize at age 23. Renowned for his psychological insight and exploration of universal themes like identity, love, and acceptance, his work spans literary fiction, essays. His novels have been widely translated, “At the End of the Matinee” “A MAN” and “The Real You” have been adapted for film. A former cultural envoy to Paris, he has delivered lectures across Europe and appeared in a TED talk on self-love and identity. His books available in English include “A MAN” (2020), “At the End of the Matinee (2021)“, and “Eclipse”(2024). He has also published in Japan, a critical study on Yukio Mishima and, most recently, the short story collection “Mt. Fuji”. He has been staying in New York for an extended period since the summer of 2025.

About Sam Bett:

Sam Bett is a fiction writer and translator of Japanese literature including works by Osamu Dazai, Yukio Mishima, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Izumi Suzuki, and Mieko Kawakami, including works shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and the International Booker Prize. In 2025, Sam’s translation of The Night of Baba Yaga by Akira Otani won a CWA Dagger Award in 2025.

For RSVP and more details on the Nov 2^nd event, please visit Book Your Author Event: Jose Ando Presents “Jackson Alone” in Conversation With Sam Bett Event With Bibliotheque on Resy.

For more details on the Nov 3^rd event, please visit Novel: Jackson Alone | East Asian Studies Program.

These events are co-presented by The Japan Foundation, Soho Press, and Department of East Asian Studies at Princeton University.