Janet Pocorobba
Janet Pocorobba’s involvement with Japan includes two decades of performing Japanese arts on two continents. She plays shamisen, the three drums of the kabuki orchestra (kotsuzumi, otsuzumi, and shimedaiko), and Japanese dance. In the United States Janet has lectured on Japanese music and taught shamisen individually, and has performed in concert halls, schools, museums, culture fairs, and backyards. In 2009, she created and toured 17 Views of a Shamisen, a spoken-word and music performance relating the paradoxes and angst of cross-cultural living that fans called “a Japanese Alice’s Restaurant!” In Tokyo Janet was a features writer and editor for Metropolis, Tokyo’s #1 English-language magazine. Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, The Writer, Harvard Review, [Nixes Mate], Kyoto Journal, Indiana Review, and others. She is currently associate professor and associate director of the Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing at Lesley University. Janet lives in Vermont and can be reached at www.janetpocorobba.com