Sayaka Murata

Sayaka Murata is a Japanese novelist and essayist.

She was born on August 14, 1979, in Inzai, Chiba Prefecture. She graduated from the women’s school at Nishogakusha University; at school, Murata served as the arts club captain. She is a graduate of the Faculty of Letters at Tamagawa University. Among Murata’s teachers was the writer Akio Miyahara.

As of 2016, she worked part-time at a convenience store. According to the writer, the job gives her food for thought and plot ideas for her books.

She had been writing since her youth, and Murata’s entrance essay “Ideal” was highly praised in examinations. Her literary debut was the book Breastfeeding, for which Murata was awarded the Gunzo Prize for New Writers. Murata’s works brought her the Mishima Prize four times. In 2016, for the short story “The Convenience Store Man,” published in the magazine Bungakukai, Murata received the Akutagawa Prize; it was her first nomination for this prize.