Geraldine Harcourt

Geraldine Millais Harcourt (25 May 1952 – 21 June 2019) was a New Zealand translator of modern Japanese literature.

Geraldine Harcourt
Born	Geraldine Millais Harcourt (1952-05-25)25 May 1952 Auckland, New Zealand
Died	21 June 2019(2019-06-21) (aged 67) Wellington, New Zealand
Occupation	Translator
Relatives	Kate Harcourt (aunt) Miranda Harcourt (cousin) Thomasin McKenzie (niece)

Early life and education

Harcourt was born in Auckland on 25 May 1952.^[1][2] She graduated from the University of Auckland, and first went to Japan in 1973.^[2]

Career

Harcourt developed a close working relationship with Japanese fiction writer Yūko Tsushima,^[3] and translated many of her works into English. These include:

• Yūko Tsushima, Child of Fortune (1978)
• Yūko Tsushima, Territory of Light (1979)
• Yūko Tsushima, Woman Running in the Mountains (1980)
• Yūko Tsushima, The Shooting Gallery & Other Stories (1973–1984)
• Yūko Tsushima, Of Dogs and Walls (2018)

Works by other Japanese authors translated into English by Harcourt include:

• Shizuko Gō, Requiem (1985)
• Hirotada Ototake, No One's Perfect (1998)
• Yūko Tanaka, The Power of the Weave: The Hidden Meanings of Cloth (2013)
• Takeshi Nakagawa, The Japanese House in Space, Memory, and Language (2006)

Awards

In 1990, Harcourt was awarded the Wheatland Translation Prize.^[4] She won the 2018–2019 Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize for her translation of Territory of Light, published by Penguin in 2017.^[4][5]

Death

Harcourt died in Wellington on 21 June 2019.^[1][4]