Sayaka Murata (Japan)

Biography

Murata was born in Inzai, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, in 1979. As a child, she often read science fiction and
mystery novels borrowed from her brother and mother, and her mother bought her a word processor
after she attempted to write a novel by hand in the fourth grade of elementary school. After Murata
completed middle school in Inzai, her family moved to Tokyo, where she graduated from Kashiwa High
School (attached to Nishogakusha University) and attended Tamagawa University.

Her first novel, Jyunyū (Breastfeeding), won the 2003 Gunzo Prize for New Writers. In 2013 she won the
Mishima Yukio Prize for Shiro-iro no machi no, sono hone no taion no (Of Bones, Of Body Heat, Of
Whitening City), and in 2014 the Special Prize of the Sense of Gender Award. In 2016 her 10th novel,
Konbini ningen (Convenience Store Person), won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, and she was named
one of Vogue Japan's Women of the Year. Konbini ningen has sold over 1.5 million copies in Japan[8]
and in 2018 it became her first book to be translated into English, under the title Convenience Store
Woman.[9] It has been translated into more than 30 languages. Murata worked part-time as a
convenience store clerk in Tokyo for eighteen years until 2017.

Literary Works

Junyū (Breastfeeding) Kodansha, 2005

Gin'iro no uta (Silver Song), Shinchosha, 2009

Mausu (Mouse), Kodansha, 2008

Hoshi ga sū mizu (Water for the Stars), Kodansha, 2010

Hakobune (Ark), Shueisha, 2011

Shiro-iro no machi no, sono hone no taion no (Of Bones, Of Body Heat, Of Whitening City), Asahi
Shimbun, 2012

Tadaima tobira, Shinchosha, 2012

Satsujin shussan (The Murder Births), Kodansha, 2014

Shōmetsu sekai (Dwindling World), Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 2015

Konbini ningen (Convenience Store Person), Bungeishunju, 2016

Chikyū seijin (Earthlings), Shinchosa 2018

Seimeishiki (Life Ceremony), Kawade Shobo Shinsha 2019

The Future of Sex Lives in All of Us (article) 2019.

Awards:

Year Prize Title Notes

2003 Gunzo Prize for New Jyunyū Won
Writers
2009 Mishima Yukio Prize Gin iro no uta Nominated
2009 Noma Literary New Gin iro no uta Won
Face Prize
2010 Mishima Yukio Prize Hoshi ga sū mizu Nominated
2012 Mishima Yukio Prize Tadaima tobira Nominated
2013 Mishima Yukio Prize Shiro-iro no machi no, Won
sono hone no taion no
2014 Sense of Gender Satsujin shussan Won
Awards
2016 Akutagawa Prize Konbini ningen Won
Haruki Murakami

Bibliography

Murakami was born in Kyoto, Japan, during the post-World War II baby boom and raised in Nishinomiya,
Ashiya and Kobe. He is an only child. His father was the son of a Buddhist priest, and his mother is the
daughter of an Osaka merchant. Both taught Japanese literatures. His father was involved in the Second
Sino-Japanese War, and was deeply traumatized by it, which would, in turn, affect Murakami.

Since childhood, Murakami, like Kōbō Abe, has been heavily influenced by Western culture, particularly
Western as well as Russian music and literature. He grew up reading a wide range of works by European
and American writers, such as Franz Kafka, Gustave Flaubert, Charles Dickens, Kurt Vonnegut, Fyodor
Dostoyevsky, Richard Brautigan and Jack Kerouac. These Western influences distinguish Murakami from
the majority of other Japanese writers.

Murakami studied drama at Waseda University in Tokyo, where he met Yoko, now his wife. His first job
was at a record store. Shortly before finishing his studies, Murakami opened a coffee house and jazz bar,
Peter Cat, in Kokubunji, Tokyo, which he ran with his wife, from 1974 to 1981. The couple decided not to
have children.

Murakami is an experienced marathon runner and triathlon enthusiast, though he did not start running
until he was 33 years old, after he began as a way to stay healthy despite the hours spent at his desk
writing. On June 23, 1996, he completed his first ultramarathon, a 100 km race around Lake Saroma in
Hokkaido, Japan. He discusses his relationship with running in his 2007 memoir What I Talk About When
I Talk About Running.

Literary Works

Kaze no uta o kike (Hear the Wind Sing) 1979

1973-nen no pinbōru (Pinball, 1973) 1980

Hitsuji o meguru bōken (A Wild Sheep Chase) 1982

Sekai no owari to Hādo-boirudo Wandārando (Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World) 1985

Noruwei no mori (Norwegian Wood) 1987

Dansu dansu dansu (Dance Dance Dance) 1988

Kokkyō no minami, taiyō no nishi (South of the Border, West of the Sun) 1992

Nejimaki-dori kuronikuru (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle) 1994

Underground 1997

Supūtoniku no koibito (Sputnik Sweetheart) 1999

Umibe no Kafuka (Kafka on the Shore) 2002

Afutā dāku (After Dark) 2004

Ichi-kyū-hachi-yon (1Q84) 2009

Mekurayanagi to nemuru onna (Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman) 2009

Shikisai o motanai Tazaki Tsukuru to, kare no junrei no toshi (Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of
Pilgrimage) 2013

Kishidanchō-goroshi (Killing Commendatore) 2017

Awards

Year Prize Title Notes

1979 Gunzo Award Hear the Wind Sing Won
1982 Noma Literary Prize A Wild Sheep Chase Won
1985 Tanizaki Prize Hard-Boiled Nominated
Wonderland and the
End of the World
1995 Yomiuri Prize The Wind-Up Bird Won
Chronicle
1999 Kuwabara Takeo Prize Underground Nominated
2006 World Fantasy Award Kafka on the Shore Won
2006 Frank O’Connor Blind Willow, Sleeping Nominated
International Short Woman
Story Award

2016: Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award

2018: America Award in Literature for a lifetime contribution to international writing

2022: Prix mondial Cinco Del Duca for a lifetime of work constituting, in a literary form, a message of
modern humanism