Saou Ichikawa
{{short description|Japanese writer (born 1979)}}
{{Expand Japanese|市川沙央)|date=April 2025}}
{{nihongo|Saou Ichikawa|市川沙央|Ichikawa Saō|born 1979}} is a Japanese writer. She is best known for her debut novel Hunchback, for which she won the Akutagawa Prize in 2023.
Biography
Ichikawa was born in 1979.{{cite web |title=芥川賞作家・市川沙央が『文學界』最新号で、受賞第一作『オフィーリア23号』を発表 |url=https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000413.000043732.html |website=PR Times |access-date=28 February 2025 |language=ja-JP |date=9 April 2024}} She has congenital myopathy and uses a wheelchair and a respirator, the latter which she has used since age 13.{{cite news |last1=Yamazaki |first1=Satoshi |title=Akutagawa Prize for author Ichikawa makes disability visible |url=https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14961547 |access-date=28 February 2025 |work=The Asahi Shimbun |date=20 July 2023}}{{cite news |last1=Fackler |first1=Martin |title=The Prize-Winning Novel Challenging ‘Ableist Machismo’ in Japan |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/world/asia/saou-ichikawa-japan-hunchback.html |access-date=15 May 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=15 May 2025}} She has an older sister, who also has congenital myopathy.{{cite news |title=「日本の“読書バリアフリー環境”の遅れは目につきました」市川沙央氏が芥川賞受賞作で伝えたかった自身の“問題意識” 新芥川賞作家 市川沙央氏インタビュー {{!}} 読書オンライン |url=https://books.bunshun.jp/articles/-/8370 |access-date=28 February 2025 |work=Bunshun |language=ja}} She decided to become a novelist at age 20, as she felt her career options were limited due to her disability.{{cite news |last1=Tanaka |first1=Kana |title=Disabled author channels personal experience in award-winning novel {{!}} NHK WORLD-JAPAN News |url=https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/backstories/2663/ |access-date=28 February 2025 |work=NHK |language=en}} She first began to write light novels, but grew discouraged after a light novel she wrote failed to win a prize, and decided to instead write serious fiction. She graduated from Waseda University. She grew up reading the Paddington Bear books by Michael Bond and the St. Clare's books by Enid Blyton; she named Dostoyevsky's The Idiot and Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha as having influenced her.{{cite web |title=An interview with Saou Ichikawa and Polly Barton, author and translator of Hunchback {{!}} The Booker Prizes |url=https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/saou-ichikawa-and-polly-barton-interview-hunchback |website=Booker Prizes |access-date=27 April 2025 |language=en |date=14 March 2025}}
At university, she began to research the representation of disabled people in literature, which inspired the writing of her novel Hunchback, about a profoundly disabled woman, Izawa, who pays her male caretaker to have sex with her.{{cite web|last1=Kinnas |first1=Miho |title=Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa |url=https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/march/hunchback-saou-ichikawa |access-date=28 February 2025 |website=World Literature Today |language=en}} Hunchback was published in 2023. The novel was well-received: it sold 230,000 copies; Japan Times described it as "dark and funny".{{cite news |last1=Ha |first1=Thu-huong |title=Saou Ichikawa’s 'Hunchback': A darkly funny portrait of disability |url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2023/09/02/books/saou-ichikawa-hunchback-review/ |access-date=28 February 2025 |work=The Japan Times |date=2 September 2023 |language=en}} She is the first disabled writer to win the Akutagawa Prize. Novelist Keiichiro Hirano, who was on the jury for the Akutagawa Prize for that year, stated that the book "knocks down conventional wisdom and common sense centered on able-bodied people". Viking Press acquired the English rights to the novel,{{cite news |last1=Wood |first1=Heloise |title=Viking pre-empts Ichikawa’s Hunchback |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/rights/viking-pre-empts-ichikawas-hunchback |access-date=28 February 2025 |work=The Bookseller |date=1 November 2023 |language=En}} and a translation by Polly Barton was released in 2025. The translation received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews, both of which praised the social commentary of the novel.{{cite news |title=Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780593734711 |access-date=28 February 2025 |work=Publishers Weekly |date=6 December 2024}}{{cite web|title=HUNCHBACK {{!}} Kirkus Reviews |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/saou-ichikawa/hunchback-2/ |access-date=28 February 2025 |website=Kirkus Reviews |date=15 February 2025 |language=en}} The English translation was longlisted for the International Booker Prize; the judges praised Hunchback for its criticism of ableism and sexism.{{cite web |title=Hunchback: Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025 {{!}} The Booker Prizes |url=https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/hunchback |website=thebookerprizes.com |access-date=28 February 2025 |language=en |date=6 March 2025}}
Works
Awards and recognition
- 2023 Bungakukai Prize for New Writers for Hunchback
- 2023 Akutagawa Prize for Hunchback
- Longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2025 for Hunchback
References
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Category:Waseda University alumni
Category:Japanese women writers
Category:Writers with disabilities