Born in Ohio but raised in Japan, Wayne P. Lammers grew up speaking both Japanese and English. He taught Japanese language and literature at the university level for a number of years before becoming an independent translator and author. He was translation editor for Mangajin magazine during its run in the 1990s, and this work subsequently led to his writing Japanese the Manga Way. He has won two translation awards for his literary work, which has included short stories, novels, plays, memoirs, and a classical romance; titles include The Shadow of a Blue Cat (Naoyuki Ii), Spinning Tropics (Aska Mochizuki), Woman on the Other Shore (Mitsuyo Kakuta), Undercurrents: Episodes from a Life on the Edge (Shintaro Ishihara), Strangers (Taichi Yamada), Taken Captive: A Japanese POW’s Story (Shohei Ooka), Evening Clouds (Junzo Shono), Still Life and Other Stories (Junzo Shono). Much of his recent literary translation work has been for the Japanese Literature Publishing Project supported by the Japanese government. He lives outside Portland, Oregon.