Yuko Tsushima

Yuko Tsushima (1947–2016) was a Japanese writer. She studied English literature and published her first short-story collection, Shaniku-sai (Carnival), at the age of 24. Over the course of her career, she wrote short stories and seventeen novels, receiving such honors as the Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature, the Noma Literary Prize, the Yomiuri Prize, and the Tanizaki Prize. Tsushima was the daughter of the writer Osamu Dazai, who died when she was one year old. Her work is often autobiographical and explores family, motherhood, loss, and social exclusion.