KIYOKO MURATA is the author of A Woman of Pleasure. She has been awarded many of Japan's major literary awards including the Akutagawa Prize in 1987. [Hizoku] won the Tanizaki Prize in 2019. She lives in Fukuoka, Japan.

Translator:
JULIET WINTERS CARPENTER was a distinguished translator of Japanese literature whose work received numerous awards. She lived in Japan for over forty-five years, then on Whidbey Island in Washington State. She died in 2026.