Sayaka Murata

Sayaka Murata (in Japanese, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19421000.______" title="村田 沙耶香" rel="nofollow noopener">村田 沙耶香</a>) is one of the most exciting up-and-coming writers in Japan today. <br />She herself still works part time in a convenience store, which gave her the inspiration to write <i>Convenience Store Woman</i> (<i>Konbini Ningen</i>). She debuted in 2003 with <i>Junyu</i> (<i>Breastfeeding</i>), which won the Gunzo Prize for new writers. In 2009 she won the Noma Prize for New Writers with <i>Gin iro no uta</i> (<i>Silver Song</i>), and in 2013 the Mishima Yukio Prize for <i>Shiro-oro no machi no, sono hone no taion no</i> (<i>Of Bones, of Body Heat, of Whitening City</i>). <i>Convenience Store Woman</i> won the 2016 Akutagawa Award. Murata has two short stories published in English (both translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori): "Lover on the Breeze" (<i>Ruptured Fiction(s) of the Earthquake</i>, Waseda Bungaku, 2011) and "A Clean Marriage" (<i>Granta 127: Japan</i>, 2014).