Yōko Tawada
Yōko Tawada
b. 23 March 1960 · From Japan18
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Yōko Tawada (多和田葉子) is a Japanese writer who has lived in Germany since 1982 and writes in both Japanese and German. Born in Tokyo in 1960, she read Russian literature at Waseda University, later taking a master's degree in contemporary German literature at the University of Hamburg and a doctorate …
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Fiction Literary Fiction Magical Realism Non-Fiction Short Stories
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Frequently asked questions
Which of Yōko Tawada's books have won prizes?
The Bridegroom Was a Dog (犬婿入り) won the 108th Akutagawa Prize, awarded in 1993. The Emissary (献灯使) won the inaugural National Book Award for Translated Literature in 2018, shared with its translator Margaret Mitsutani. Her other prize-winning books include Kakato o nakushite, which took the Gunzō Prize for New Writers in 1991, Hinagiku no ocha no baai (Izumi Kyōka Prize, 2000), Yōgisha no yakō ressha (Tanizaki Prize, 2003) and Yuki no renshūsei (Noma Literary Prize, 2011), published in English as Memoirs of a Polar Bear.
In what languages does Yōko Tawada write?
She writes in both Japanese and German, having moved to Germany in 1982 and published in both languages since the 1980s. Her work reaches English through translators rather than self-translation: Margaret Mitsutani translates her Japanese, including The Emissary, and Susan Bernofsky her German, including Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel.
What major awards has Yōko Tawada received for her work as a whole?
Separately from the prizes awarded to individual books, Tawada has been honoured for her body of work: the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize in 1996, which recognises German-language writing by authors whose first language is not German; the Goethe Medal in 2005; Germany's Kleist Prize in 2016; and Japan's Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2020.