Polly Barton (author)

Polly Barton is a writer and translator. She has written two non-fiction books, Fifty Sounds and Porn: An Oral History, and translated numerous titles of Japanese literature and non-fiction. Her translations have been featured in Granta, Catapult, and The White Review, and in 2019 she won the Fitzcarraldo Editions Essay Prize for her non-fiction debut, Fifty Sounds.

Life and career
Barton grew up in west London and studied philosophy at the University of Cambridge. She traveled to Japan to teach English as part of the JET Program.

Awards and honors

 * Winner of English PEN Translates award 2020, for translating There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job.
 * Longlisted for the 2022 Ondaatje prize for Fifty Sounds.
 * Shortlisted for the 2022 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Prize for Fifty Sounds.