Yoko Ogawa

Yōko Ogawa was born in Okayama, Japan and studied writing at Waseda University in Shinjuku, Tokyo. She worked as a medical engineering secretary until she married her husband and quit her job—a common practice for women in her generation. Ogawa wrote while home alone when her husband was at work. She published her first novel, The Breaking of the Butterfly, in 1988, a debut that would go on to win the Kaien Literary Prize. In 1990, Ogawa won the Akutagawa Prize for her book Pregnancy Diaries, which she wrote while taking care of her young son. Since her first publication, Ogawa has written over 50 works of fiction and nonfiction.  Internationally, her work has been recognized with the Shirley Jackson Award and the American Book Award, and the English translation of The Memory Police was a finalist for the International Booker Prize in 2020. Ogawa cites authors such as Haruki Murakami, Marguerite Duras, and Paul Auster as influences in her writing. Ogawa has said that no matter where life takes her, she always wants “to have a life of writing.”