Japanese writer Masatsugu Ono is a familiar name to Vietnamese literature-fans through his various activities in the country. - VNS File Photo

HA NOI -- Masatsugu Ono, a writer from Japan, will meet with a Hanoian audience this morning at the Trung Nguyen Cafe, 36 Dien Bien Phu Street.

He will have an additional meeting with locals at Hoa Sen University, 93 Cao Thang, District 3 in Ho Chi Minh City.

The writer will introduce his Mermaid's Song two-fiction collection, the Vietnamese version of which has just hit local bookstalls via Tre (Youth) Publishing House.

Vietnamese writer-translator Nguyen Quy Duc and journalist Le Hong Lam, who helped translate and publish the book, will also appear at the meeting.

Admission will be free.

As a rising young writer, with many literary awards, Masatsugu Ono conducted a series of lectures on Japanese contemporary literature in Ha Noi, Hue, and Ho Chi Minh last March.

Armed with a PhD in Literature from the University of Paris VIII, Ono wrote his first novel Mizu ni Umoreru Haka (Graves Buried in Water), in 2001, which went on to win the Asahi New Writer's Award.

His second novel, Nigiyakana Wan ni Seowareta Fune (The Ship Piggybacked by Jolly Bay) won the Mishima Yukio Prize.

Ono has been nominated twice for the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, and his sharp criticisms on Japanese contemporary literature have frequently appeared in newspapers, magazines, and web sites.

Ono himself likes to write about pre-modernised communities and old people in Japan. - VNS