Mieko Kawakami (川上未映子, Kawakami Mieko, born August 29, 1976) 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 (乳と卵), the 2013 Tanizaki Prize for her short story collection Ai no yume to ka (愛の夢とか) (Dreams of Love, etc.), and the 2008 Nakahara Chūya Prize for Contemporary Poetry for Sentan de, sasuwa sasareruwa soraeewa (先端で さすわ さされるわ そらええわ). 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.
Early life
Kawakami was born in Osaka on August 29, 1976 to a working-class family.[1][2]
Career
Kawakami worked as a hostess and bookstore clerk, before embarking on a singing career.[3] Kawakami released three albums, but she quit her musical career in 2006 to focus on writing.[4]
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.[citation needed] Before winning the Akutagawa Prize in 2008 for Chichi to Ran, Kawakami was known in Japan primarily as a blogger.[3] At its peak, her popular blog received over 200,000 hits per day.[5]
In 2010, Kawakami's first full-length novel, Heaven, won the Murasaki Shikibu Prize for Literature.[6] 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.[7]
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.[8] The edited volume of these interviews, titled Mimizuku wa Tasogare ni Tobitatsu (みみずくは黄昏に飛びたつ, Haruki Murakami: A Long, Long Interview) 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."[9]
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."[12]
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.[4] Her writing is known for its poetic qualities and its insights into the female body, ethical questions, and the dilemmas of modern society.[citation needed]
Japanese author, Haruki Murakami, called her his favorite young novelist[14] and has described her writing as "ceaselessly growing and evolving".[15][16]
Personal life
Kawakami lives in Tokyo, Japan.[17] She is married to author Kazushige Abe, with whom she has a son.[18]
Awards and recognition
In addition to the awards noted above, Kawakami has also received the following:
2007 Tsubouchi Shoyo Prize for Young Emerging Writers for Watakushi ritsuin hā, mata wa sekai (My Ego Ratio, My Teeth, and the World)[19]
2008 Chūya Nakahara Prize for Sentan de, sasuwa sasareruwa sora eewa[20]
^ ab"紫式部文学賞". 宇治市図書館 (in Japanese). Retrieved June 21, 2018.
^ abKawakami, Mieko (2012). "March Yarn". In Luke, Elmer; Karashima, David James (eds.). March was Made of Yarn: Reflections on the Japanese Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Meltdown. Translated by Emmerich, Michael. Vintage Books. pp. 55–70. ISBN9780307948861.
^Hunt, Joshua (February 7, 2023). "'Breasts and Eggs' Made Her a Feminist Icon. She Has Other Ambitions". The New York Times. ISSN0362-4331. Retrieved December 29, 2023. The comfortable life she has ended up with — married to another successful novelist, with whom she shares a 10-year-old son and a modest home in Tokyo — doesn't always fit as well as the designer dresses that disguise her working-class roots.
^Cook, Grace (April 22, 2022). "Rooms of their own". Financial Times. Retrieved December 29, 2023.
^Kawakami, Mieko (2016). "Strawberry Fields Forever and Ever". Pleiades: Literature in Context. 36. Translated by Yoshio, Hitomi: 65–67. doi:10.1353/plc.2016.0007. S2CID111219381.
^Kawakami, Mieko (October 10, 2017). "The Flower Garden". In Freeman, John (ed.). Freeman's: The Future of New Writing. Translated by Yoshio, Hitomi. Grove Press.
