Ao Omae (Japanese name: 大前粟生) was born in 1992 in Hyogo Prefecture. Hailed in Japan as a rising star of gender-conscious literature since the 2020 publication of Nuigurumi to Shaberu Hito wa Yasashii (“People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals are Nice”), he debuted in 2016 with a short story that was eventually included in the 2018 collection Kaitengusa (Tumbleweed). In 2019, he released a collection of flash fiction called Watashi to Wani to Imōto no Heya (“A Room for a Crocodile, My Sister, and Me”), and his 2017 digital-only collection is Nokemonodomono.