Hitomi Kanehara

When the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster occurred in 2011, Kanehara left Tokyo for Okayama out of concerns about the effects of radiation on her children. In 2012 she moved to France, and her book Mazāzu (Mothers) won the Bunkamura Deux Magots Literary Prize. Since moving to France, Kanehara has written several books, including Keihaku (Flirty) in 2016 and Kuraudo gāru (Cloud Girl) in 2017. She currently resides in France with her husband and two daughters.

Kanehara's novel Autofiction, with a story that unfolds in reverse chronological order, was published in Japan in 2006. In 2007 an English version of Autofiction, translated by David James Karashima, was published by Vintage Books under the same name, and her novel Haidora (Hydra) appeared in print in Japan. A film adaptation of Hebi ni piasu, directed by Yukio Ninagawa and starring Yuriko Yoshitaka in the lead role, premiered in 2008. Kanehara's novel Torippu torappu (TRIP TRAP) was published in 2009, and won the 2010 Sakunosuke Oda Prize.

She wrote her first novel, Hebi ni piasu (Snakes and Earrings), at the age of 21. The novel won the Shōsetsu Subaru Literary Prize and the Akutagawa Prize (judged by novelist Ryū Murakami), and became a Japanese bestseller, going on to sell more than one million copies. Kanehara and fellow 2003 Akutagawa Prize honoree Risa Wataya remain the youngest people ever to receive the Akutagawa Prize. In the same year that she won the Akutagawa Prize, Kanehara got married.

Hitomi Kanehara (金原 ひとみ , Kanehara Hitomi, born August 8, 1983) is a Japanese novelist. Her novel Hebi ni piasu (Snakes and Earrings) won the Shōsetsu Subaru Literary Prize and the Akutagawa Prize, and sold over a million copies in Japan. Her work has been translated into more than a dozen languages worldwide.