Kavakami Khiromi

A Japanese writer and biologist, winner of literary awards. In 1994, for the novella Bear God, she received the Pascal Literary Prize for debut in short forms. In 1998, the eponymous collection was published and won the Murasaki Shikibu Prize and the Bunkamura Domego Prize. For Step on a Snake (1996), the writer received the Akutagawa Prize. Her distinctive literary style and biological perception of the world make Hiromi Kawakami’s prose attractive to readers. In her works, a woman seduces a man as a snake seduces a rabbit. Bear God is a lighthearted, anti-realist novella that, according to G. Chkhartishvili, could be called “wild.”

In 1980, Hiromi Kawakami graduated from Ochanomizu Women's University, where she studied biology. After that, Hiromi worked at a school, but soon had to become a homemaker because she moved with her husband for his work.

The young writer published her debut story under the pen name Hiromi Yamada in 1980. For it, she received the Pascal Prize for beginning authors. In 1994, Kawakami's first short story collection, 神様 (“Kamisama” / “God”), was published. In 1996, Kawakami was awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, given in Japan to beginning authors. In 2001, for the novel センセイの鞄 (“Sensei's Bag”), she received the Tanizaki Prize.

In one interview, Kawakami admitted that she visits bookstores every time she goes shopping, whether for groceries or clothes. She goes to several stores in the suburbs and different districts of Tokyo, and also buys secondhand books and manga. Hiromi often picks books at random, without a specially prepared shopping list. Kawakami is not picky about genres, saying, “Book lovers will read anything, won’t they?” In this way, she avoids discrimination and dividing books into “real literature” and “trash.” At the same time, she admits that with age and experience, the ability to choose in a store, by cover and blurb, a book that will definitely be liked comes naturally.