Paul S. Atkins

Paul S. Atkins is professor of Japanese in the Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington, Seattle.  His specialization is the literature, drama, and culture of medieval Japan.  

Publications include the monographs Teika: The Life and Works of a Medieval Japanese Poet (University of Hawai’i Press, 2017) and Revealed Identity:  The Noh Plays of Komparu Zenchiku (Center of Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2006) as well as peer-reviewed articles in journals including Monumenta Nipponica, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Journal of Asian Studies, Asian Theatre Journal, Journal of the American Oriental Society, and Japanese Language and Literature.  

Professor Atkins was awarded the Kyoko Selden Memorial Translation Prize by Cornell University in 2021 and the William F. Sibley Memorial Translation Prize by the University of Chicago in 2011. He holds a Ph.D. in Japanese from Stanford University, studied at the University of Tokyo as a Fulbright dissertation fellow, and has held visiting faculty or research appointments at Kyoto Prefectural University, Nanzan University, Hōsei University, and Keiō University.