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Mariko Asabuki (朝吹 真理子, Asabuki Mariko) is a Japanese writer. Her novels have won the Akutagawa Prize and the Bunkamura Deux Magots Prize, and she was named one of Vogue Japan's 2011 Women of the Year.
Mariko Asabuki | |
|---|---|
| Native name | 朝吹 真理子 |
| Born | 1984 (age 39–40) Tokyo, Japan |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Language | Japanese |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Notable works |
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| Notable awards |
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Asabuki was born in 1984 in Tokyo, Japan, into a literary family that has lived in Tokyo since the Meiji period.[1] Her father, Ryoji Asabuki, is a poet, and several other relatives are literary scholars and translators.[2] Asabuki started writing stories at the age of 3.[3] She attended an all-girls high school in Tokyo.[1]
Asabuki entered graduate school at Keio University to study modern kabuki.[4] In 2009 her first novel, Ryūseki (Ruins), was published in the literary magazine Shinchō.[5] In the following year Ryūseki won the Bunkamura Deux Magots Prize and was published in book form by Shinchosha.[6] In 2011, while Asabuki was still a Keio University graduate student, her second novel, titled Kikotowa, was published. Kikotowa won the 144th Akutagawa Prize,[2] and Vogue Japan named Asabuki one of its 2011 Women of the Year.[3] She later completed a master's degree.[7] In 2016 she began serializing a new novel, titled TIMELESS, in Shinchō.[8] From 2016 to 2017 Asabuki wrote the regular "＃明日何着よう" ("What Should I Wear Tomorrow?) column for Asahi Shimbun.[9] In 2018 Shinchosha published TIMELESS as a book.
Asabuki's first nonfiction book, a collection of essays written within the previous decade, was published under the title Hikidashi no naka no Umi (lit. The Sea in the Drawer, 抽斗のなかの海) by Chuokoron-Shinsha in 2019. According to Asabuki, the title comes from a fantasy that the back of her desk drawer is connected to the sea, which helps her imagine her work reaching other people even when she writes alone.[10] Writing for the Yomiuri Shimbun, novelist Sayaka Murata described the book's essays as feeling almost like short stories, and the resulting work as a "treasure".[11]
Asabuki regularly collaborates with other writers, artists, and musicians to create site-specific multimedia performances using readings from her work.[12][13] She has cited Kenzaburo Oe, James Joyce, Mieko Kanai, and Roland Barthes as some of her favorite writers.[3][1] Asabuki is a fan of shogi.[14] She is married to designer Kōtarō Watanabe.[15]
- 2010: Bunkamura Deux Magots Prize[6]
- 2011: Vogue Japan Woman of the Year[3]
- 2011: 144th Akutagawa Prize (2010下)[16]
- 流跡 (Ryūseki), Shinchosha, 2010, ISBN 9784103284611
- きことわ (Kikotowa), Shinchosha, 2011, ISBN 9784103284628
- TIMELESS, Shinchosha, 2018, ISBN 9784103284635
- 抽斗のなかの海 (Hikidashi no naka no Umi), Chuokoron-Shinsha, 2019, ISBN 9784120052002
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