Author Biography
Born in 1959 in Tokyo, HIROMI KAWAKAMI is one of Japan's most popular contemporary novelists, and was awarded the Akutagawa Prize in 1996. Her novel Strange Weather in Tokyo was shortlisted for both the Man Asia Literary Prize and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and has been translated into thirteen languages. ALLISON MARKIN POWELL is a literary translator and editor in New York City. Her translations include works by Osamu Dazai, Fuminori Nakamura, and Kanako Nishi, and she was the guest editor for the first Japan issue of Words Without Borders. She maintains the database, Japanese Literature in English, at http://www.japaneseliteratureinenglish.com.
