Roger Pulvers

Roger Pulvers, acclaimed author, playwright, theater and film director, translator and journalist, has published more than fifty books in Japanese and English, including novels such as The Death of Urashima Taro, General Yamashita’s Treasure, Star Sand, Liv and The Dream of Lafcadio Hearn. In 2017 the feature film of Star Sand, written and directed by him, had wide release throughout Japan. It was invited to screen at the Okinawa International Movie Festival and the Canberra International Film Festival; and has been broadcast on primetime Japanese commercial television.  

Roger has worked extensively in film and television. He was assistant to director Nagisa Oshima on the film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, starring David Bowie, Tom Conti and Ryuichi Sakamoto. He also co-wrote the script for the Japanese film Ashita e no Yuigon (Best Wishes for Tomorrow), for which he won the Crystal Simorgh Prize for Best Script at the 27th Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran.  

Roger received the prestigious Kenji Miyazawa Prize in 2008 and the Noma Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature in 2013; in 2018, Japan’s highest honor, the Order of the Rising Sun; and in 2019, the Order of Australia. Over the past fifty years he has translated prose, drama and poetry from Japanese, Russian and Polish. His plays have been widely performed in Australia, Japan and the United States.