Mr. Peter Goodman, Stone Bridge Press publisher and editor-in-chief, lived in Tokyo for ten years where he worked as an editor for English-language publishers Charles E. Tuttle and Kodansha International before returning to the United States in 1985. He has served as in-house editor, ghostwriter, translator, and project manager on nearly 100 Japan and Asia-related titles, including The Japanese Language, A Japanese Touch for Your Garden, Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics, Reading and Writing Chinese, Japanese Made Easy, New Fashion Japan, The Craft of the Japanese Sword, Secret Teachings in the Art of Japanese Gardens, Kanji Pict-o-Graphix, and many more.
Stone Bridge Press was established in Berkeley, California, in 1989. The press now has some 40 titles in print, covering such Japan-related areas as language, business, literature, manga, design, and culture.
Mr. Goodman and SBP believe that Japan offers tremendous opportunities for reexamining Western values and for connecting with an emerging global culture increasingly centered on the Pacific Rim.
Mr. Goodman feels that what has fascinated so many people about Japan is its extraordinarily rich coherency, how tenets of art and spirituality are reflected in work and daily life. "For 1,500 years Japanese culture has been evolving in a more or less straight line, absorbing foreign influences but remaining identifiably Japanese." He believes it's a culture that breeds both beauty and arrogance. "It demands patience and erudition. And it gives the publisher delicious editorial challenges and an alluring design vocabulary: asymmetry, surface decoration, white space, boldness, delicacy, a quick splash of color."
Awards received by Stone Bridge Press include the PEN West award for literature, the Japan-America Friendship Commission Prize from Columbia University, the HOW International Award, the International Typographic Design Award, the AIGA award for design, and the Benjamin Franklin Award for editorial and design excellence.
Mr. Peter Goodman now lives in Albany, California, (near Berkeley) with his wife, Catherine, and two sons.