Akutagawa Prize Winner Li Kotomi: Updating the Face of Japanese Literature One Novel at A Time

With her novel Higanbana ga Saku Shima 彼岸花が咲く島 (“Island Where the Autumn Equinox Flowers Bloom”), Li Kotomi is the first person since 2008 whose first language is not Japanese to win the literary award.

Masahiko Morimoto (Sankei Shimbun), JAPAN Forward

Winners Li Kotomi (R), Kiwamu Sato (C) and Toko Sawada (L) | Image courtesy of　© JAPAN Forward / Sankei Shimbun

The Taiwan-born writer Li Kotomi, 31, has won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for her novel, Higanbana ga Saku Shima 彼岸花が咲く島 (“Island Where the Autumn Equinox Flowers Bloom,” in Japanese, by Bungeishunju Publishing, 2021).

Li shares the prize with novelist Mai Ishizawa, 41, who won the Akutagawa Prize for her work, Kai ni Tsuzuku Basho nite 貝に続く場所にて (“At the Place Following the Shellfish,” in Japanese, by Kodansha Publishers, June 2021).

For the first time in ten years, the selection panel chose two winners for each the Akutagawa and Naoki prizes at their annual meeting, held at the Shinkiraku restaurant in Tsukiji, Tokyo, on Wednesday, July 14.

Kiwamu Sato, 43, won the Naoki Prize for Tesuka Toripoka テスカトリポカ, (in Japanese, by Kadokawa Publishers, 2021) and shares it with Toko Sawada, 43, for Hoshi Ochite, Nao 星落ちて、なお (“The Stars have Fallen,” in Japanese, by Bungeishunju Publishing, 2021).