Tomoka Shibasaki

Tomoka Shibasaki was born in 1973 in Osaka. In 2000, she published her debut, A Day On The Planet, later made into a 2004 film by Isao Yukisada. Her 2007 novel Sono machi no ima wa (That Town Today) was awarded the Geijutsu Sensho Newcomers Prize, the Sakunosuke Oda Award and the Sakuya Konohana Award. In 2010, her novel Asako I & II received the Noma Newcomer’s Award; the book was subsequently adapted for screen by Ryusuke Hamaguchi and screened at Cannes. In 2014, Shibasaki won the Akutagawa Award for her book Spring Garden, now translated into many languages including English (published by Pushkin Press). Her latest work is A Hundred Years and a Day, an experimental collection of thirty-three stories. Other notable works include Panorara, Machidōshii (I Can’t Wait), Sen no Tobira (A Thousand Doors), and Watashi ga inakatta machi de (In a Town Where I Wasn’t).

Image © Takeshi Funayose