Mother Tongue Publishing Limited

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Matsuki Masutani

I will be more myself in the next world
Debut book of poetry

Winner of the Canada-Japan Literary Award
Shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award
Long-listed for the Fred Cogswell Prize for Excellence in Poetry



978-1-896949-87-1 |110 pages
Includes Japanese translations

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“Intimate, spare, lucid, Masutani's poetry moves through a lifetime––from the domestic to the profound. Like a glass of cool water when I didn’t know I was parched. His poems revived me. And made me laugh aloud too!”–
Hiromi Goto, author of Shadow Life.

“The poet Fred Cogswell spoke of ‘star people.’ You chance upon them. They emanate a certain deep inner glow. Matsuki Masutani has that bright starlight. You will know it when you meet/read him.”–
Joy Kogawa.

“These brief poems record the act of taking notice. There’s a Zen smile at work as Masutani notes the dailyness of long marriage, effects of immigration, and life’s looming end to the daily. Each poem a ‘small frame’ through which ‘dark waters / dance.’–
Daphne Marlatt, author of Intertidal: The Collected Earlier Poems 1968-2008.

“With nuanced charm, humour, and a mind of gentle insight and care, Masutani turns his eye to one moment after another, as if considering items at a garage sale. But this is no ordinary eye, and no ordinary poet; his years and struggles, his stumbles and realizations have taught him that to be intimate with all things is one way to express the meaning of a life. In these poems I laughed with him, and felt the trembling world when he came to know “it is earth-shattering / to keep this ordinary life / from shattering.”–
Peter Levitt, author of One Hundred Butterflies.

In Masutani’s debut book of poetry, his clear minimalist poems embrace with gentle and perceptive wit; aging, family, dreams, his Japanese roots, self-acceptance and island life. Some poems rise tall like sunflowers in an understated garden, untangled and reflective, addressing marriage, Parkinson’s, Chemo and impermanence. The cycle of life. You will know exactly where you are when you read “I will be more myself in the next world.” Japanese translations included.

Matsuki Masutani is a poet and translator living on Denman Island. He moved from Tokyo to Vancouver in 1976. Ten years later he moved to Denman Island, where he eventually began writing poems in English and Japanese. He has translated Canadian works such as Roy Kiyooka's Mothertalk, Hiromi Goto's Chorus of Mushrooms, and from Japanese into English, Kishizo Kimura's memoir, Witness to Loss, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in 2017. His poems have appeared in Geist magazine, Capilano Review and in the anthology Love of the Salish Sea Islands.



  
Last Titles

Debut books of poetry by Linda K. Thompson and Matsuki Masutani, new fiction by Bill Stenson and new poetry by shauna paull.

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Honours



Mother Tongue Publishing is a small literary publisher, home-based that published 4 titles a year from Salt Spring Island, B.C. in Canada. It is Home of great regional fiction, poetry, anthologies, creative non-fiction and the Unheralded Artists of BC series. From 1994-2007 we published 28 limited edition Canadian poetry chapbooks, letterpressed poetry broadsides, covers, linocuts and book art. From 2008-2021, we have published 52 literary trade titles. Check out our book shop. Thanks for your support.

* 2023 Winner of the Canada-Japan Literary Award
* 2022 Shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize
* 2022 Shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award
* 2021 Winner of the ReLit Poetry Award
* 2020 Long-listed for the Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry
* 2019 Top Publisher in Canada-The Writers' Union of Canada Publishers’ Report Card
* 2018 Two books short-listed for the Victoria Butler Book Prize
* 2018 Long-listed for the ReLit Prize
* 2018 Finalist for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize
* 2018 Finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize
* 2017 Short-listed for the Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry
* 2017 Short-listed for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize
* 2016 Short-listed for the Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry
* 2016 Mona Fertig was made a Literary Landmark in Vancouver, B.C.
* 2016 B.C. Historical Federation Writing Competition, Honourable mention    
* 2014 Winner of the F.G. Bressani Literary Award for Short Fiction.
* 2014 Runner-Up Winner for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award
* 2014 Short-listed for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize
* 2013 Short-listed for the Victoria Butler Book Prize
* 2013 Top twelve publishers in Canada-TWUC members publisher report card
* 2013 Honoured as Publisher at the Galiano Literary Festival
* 2012 'Everything Was Good-bye' Voted Top 5 Canada Reads Choice in BC/Yukon
* 2012 Finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award
* 2012 Short-listed for the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize
* 2011 Long-listed for the ReLit Prize
* 2011 Winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize
* 2011 Recipient of Pandora's Collective Publishers Award
* 2011 Honor Roll of Publishers by the Pacific Northwest Chapter of American Society of Indexing

  
Authors



Gurjinder Basran, Marilyn Bowering, Adrienne Brown, Peter Busby, Trevor Carolan, Claudia Cornwall, daniela elza, Blaise Enright, Eufemia Fantetti, Mona Fertig, Cathy Ford, Patrick Friesen, Rhonda Ganz, Kerry Gilbert, Shirley Graham, Peter Haase, Joan Haggerty, Diana Hayes, Christina Johnson-Dean, Theresa Kishkan, Chelene Knight, Eve Lazarus, Julia Leggett, Kerry Mason, Matsuki Masutani, Peter Morin, Kathryn Para, Wendy Newbold Patterson, shauna paull, Barry Peterson, Al Rempel, Linda Rogers, Sheryl Salloum, Bill Stenson, Linda K. Thompson, Monika Ullmann, M.C. Warrior, Gillian Wigmore, Onjana Yawnghwe.

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