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2008 Artist Projects Recipients Susan Southard – Nagasaki. The writer with translator Mariko Sugawara Bragg will complete research and writing of a nonfiction book about the survivors of the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Following the stories of three of the few remaining survivors, Southard will weave their words and experiences with scientific information about the effects of radiation on their bodies, vivid descriptions of Nagasaki then and now, and nuances of Japanese culture and language. Southard is the founding and artistic director of Essential Theatre. She lives in Tempe. Panel Comments: Southard’s project is a work that stems out of deep compassion and commitment. That said, we also are deeply impressed by her thorough research on the topic of the bombing of Nagasaki and how she crafts the facts into such stunning prose. This is a story whose time has come, and Southard is the only one who can write it. Panelist Todd Petersen's Comment for the Bill Desmond Writing Award: The matter of our nuclear attacks on Japan is common enough in our history, but our sense of the true costs don’t come out in our telling of the stories. Susan Southard’s work with the stories of the Japanese victims is profound and moving, an intersection of journalism and prose at its most poetic. It presents fact and moves us, as the best non-fiction does, to see through the haze of language into true experience.
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