Tsushima Yuko

Who is Tsushima Yuko?

Yūko Tsushima is the pen name of Satoko Tsushima, a contemporary Japanese fiction writer, essayist and critic. She is the daughter of famed novelist Osamu Dazai, who committed suicide when she was one year old.

While attending Shirayuri Women's University she published her first fiction. At age 24 she published her first collection of stories, Carnival. Now a prolific writer, she is the winner of several literary prizes.

In 1972 her story "Pregnant With A Fox" was a runner-up for the Akutagawa Prize. She was awarded the Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature in 1977 and the first annual Noma Prize for New Writers in 1979. In 1983 she was awarded the Kawabata Prize for her short story "The Silent Traders" and in 1986 she won the Yomiuri Prize for her novel Driven by the Light of the Night. In 1998 she was awarded the 34th Tanizaki Prize and the 51st Noma Prize for her novel Mountain of Fire: Account Of A Wild Monkey.