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Yōko Tawada

たわだ ようこ

Tawada Yōko

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1960-03-23 （Nakano, Tokyo）
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese, German
Residence History
Tokyo, Japan → Hamburg, Germany → Zurich, Switzerland → Berlin, Germany

Career

Occupations
Writer, Poet
Active Years
1987-2024
Memberships
Member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin
Influenced By
Paul Celan, Franz Kafka
Nominations
National Book Award for Translated Literature Finalist (2022, Scattered All Over the Earth)

Education

Waseda University
Russian literature
Degree: 学士
Period: 1979-1982
Year of Graduation: 1982
Country: Japan
Hamburg University
Contemporary German literature
Degree: 修士
Period: 1982-1990
Year of Graduation: 1990
Country: Germany
University of Zurich
German literature
Degree: 博士
Period: 1990-2000
Year of Graduation: 2000
Country: Switzerland
Thesis advisor: Sigrid Weigel

Awards

Gunzo Prize for New Writers
1991
Work: Missing Heels
Organization: Kodansha
Result: 受賞
Akutagawa Prize
1993
Work: The Bridegroom Was a Dog
Organization: Shinchosha
Result: 受賞
Tanizaki Prize
2003
Work: Suspects on the Night Train
Organization: Chuo Koronsha
Result: 受賞
Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature
2000
Work: The Case of the Chamomile Tea
Organization: City of Kanazawa
Result: 受賞
Noma Literary Prize
2011
Work: Memoirs of a Polar Bear
Organization: Kodansha
Result: 受賞
Goethe Medal
2005
Organization: Goethe-Institut
Result: 受賞
Kleist Prize
2016
Result: 受賞
Asahi Prize
2019
Organization: Asahi Shimbun
Result: 受賞
National Book Award for Translated Literature
2018
Work: The Emissary
Organization: National Book Foundation
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Bridegroom Was a Dog

1993 Fiction

A strange tale of a dog taken as a bridegroom into a human home, exploring boundaries of language and reality.

languageotherworldmarriage
Translations
  • English (trans. Margaret Mitsutani)

Memoirs of a Polar Bear

2011 Fiction

Three generations of polar bears narrate stories exploring human-animal relationships.

human-animalmemoryexile
Translations
  • English (trans. Susan Bernofsky)

The Emissary

2014 Dystopian Fiction

In a dystopian future Japan, the elderly grow stronger while children weaken.

futurebodyenvironment
Translations
  • English (trans. Margaret Mitsutani)

Scattered All Over the Earth

2018 Fiction

Multilingual speakers navigate a world where Japan has sunk.

languageidentitymigration
Translations
  • English (trans. Margaret Mitsutani)

Bibliography

  • Missing Heels
  • The Wound at the Alphabet
  • Legend of a Saint
  • The Man With Two Mouths
  • The Case of the Chamomile Tea
  • Suspects on the Night Train
  • The Naked Eye
  • Etüden im Schnee / Memoirs of a Polar Bear
  • The Emissary
  • Scattered All Over the Earth

Translations by Author

  • Numerous poetry translations between Japanese and German

Translations of Works

  • Numerous English translations (New Directions Publishing etc.)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
bilingual writingexophonyneologism creationcontinuous translationwordplay
Recurring Motifs
relationship between language and realitycrossing boundarieshuman and nonhumanmagical realismtravel and mobility

Legacy

Yoko Tawada is a rare writer who composes in both Japanese and German, highly acclaimed in literary circles in Japan and Germany, winner of numerous international literary prizes. Known for exploring the artificiality and magic of language.

Trivia

  • Her father was a translator and bookseller.
  • Traveled to Germany at age 19 via the Trans-Siberian Railway.
  • Writer-in-residence at MIT and Stanford University.