Mieko Kawakami


Mieko Kawakami is a Japanese writer and poet from Osaka. Her work has won prestigious Japanese literary awards in several genres, including the 138th Akutagawa Prize for her novella Chichi to Ran, the 2013 Tanizaki Prize for her short story collection Ai no yume to ka, and the 2008 Nakahara Chūya Prize for Contemporary Poetry for Sentan de, sasuwa sasareruwa soraeewa. Her 2019 novel Natsu Monogatari, an expanded version of Chichi to Ran, became a bestseller and was translated into English under the title Breasts and Eggs. Kawakami's works have been translated into several languages and distributed throughout the world.
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Early life

Kawakami was born in Osaka on August 29, 1976 to a working-class family.

Career

Kawakami worked as a hostess and bookstore clerk, before embarking on a singing career. Kawakami released three albums, but she quit her musical career in 2006 to focus on writing.
Subsequently, Kawakami made her literary debut as a poet in 2006, and she published her first novella, My Ego, My Teeth, and the World, in 2007. Before winning the Akutagawa Prize in 2008 for Chichi to Ran, Kawakami was known in Japan primarily as a blogger. At its peak, her popular blog received over 200,000 hits per day.
In 2010, Kawakami's first full-length novel, Heaven, won the Murasaki Shikibu Prize for Literature. In 2012, an English translation of her short story "March Yarn" appeared in March was Made of Yarn, which is a collection of essays and stories about the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
From 2015 to 2017, Kawakami conducted a series of interviews with Haruki Murakami, in which she notably asked him about women and sexualization in his novels. The edited volume of these interviews, titled was published in 2017. During this same period, Kawakami was selected as a 2016 Granta Best of Young Japanese Novelists for her short story "Marie's Proof of Love."
Kawakami's novel, Ms Ice Sandwich, made the shortlist of the 2018 edition of the Grand Prix of Literary Associations. In 2019, Kawakami published Natsu Monogatari, a considerably expanded version of her novella Chichi to Ran and received the 73rd Mainichi Publication Culture Award.
In 2020, the English translation of Natsu Monogatari was published under the title Breasts and Eggs by Europa Editions. The New York Times ran a review by Katie Kitamura on the day of publication, in which she observes, "Mieko Kawakami writes with a bracing lack of sentimentality, particularly when describing the lives of women."
Her first full-length novel in Japanese, Heaven, was translated and published in English in 2021, making it Kawakami's second English publication by Europa Editions for a translation done by Sam Bett and David Boyd. It was later shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize.
Her 2022 book, All the Lovers in the Night, translated into English by Sam Bett and David Boyd and published by Europa Editions, was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction. and will be adapted into a film by starring Yukino Kishii and Tadanobu Asano and released in 2026.
David Boyd's English translation of her novel, Sisters in Yellow, originally published by Chuokoron-Shinsha in 2023, was announced for a spring 2025 release by Picador.

Writing style

Kawakami's writing often employs Osaka dialect, which is a distinctive Japanese dialect spoken in Osaka and surrounding cities. She also incorporates experimental and poetic language into her short stories and novels, citing Lydia Davis and James Joyce as literary influences. Her writing is known for its poetic qualities and its insights into the female body, ethical questions, and the dilemmas of modern society.
Japanese author, Haruki Murakami, called her his favorite young novelist and has described her writing as "ceaselessly growing and evolving".

Personal life

Kawakami lives in Tokyo, Japan. She is married to author Kazushige Abe, with whom she has a son.

Awards and recognition

In addition to the awards noted above, Kawakami has also received the following:

Books in Japanese

Watakushi ritsu in ha, mata wa sekai, Kodansha, 2007, Chichi to Ran, Bungeishunju, 2008, Sentan de, sasuwa sasareruwa soraeewa, Seidosha, 2008, Hevun, Kodansha, 2009, Subete mayonaka no koibito tachi, Kodansha, 2011, Ai no yume to ka, Kodansha, 2013, Akogare, Shinchosha, 2015

Selected short work and extracts in English

  • "From Breasts and Eggs," trans. Louise Heal Kawai, Words Without Borders, 2012
  • "March Yarn," trans. Michael Emmerich, March was Made of Yarn: Reflections on the Japanese Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Meltdown, 2012
  • "Where Have All the Sundays Gone?", trans. Hitomi Yoshio, Words Without Borders, 2015
  • "About Her and the Memories That Belong to Her", trans. Hitomi Yoshio, Granta 132, 2015
  • "Strawberry Fields Forever and Ever," trans. Hitomi Yoshio, Pleiades: Literature in Context, 2016
  • "The Flower Garden," trans. Hitomi Yoshio, Freeman's: The Future of New Writing, 2017
  • "How Much Heart," trans. David Boyd, Granta Online, 2018
  • "The Flowers Look More Beautiful Now Than Ever," trans. Hitomi Yoshio, Granta Online, 2020
  • "Shame", trans. Louise Heal Kawai and Hitomi Yoshio, Granta Online, 2020

Books in translation

Kawakami also wrote Japanese translations of Peter Rabbit.