Kyoko Nakajima was born in Tokyo in 1964. After working at a publishing firm and as a freelance writer, she made her debut as a novelist in 2003 with Futon. In 2010 her novel Chisai ouchi won the Naoki Prize. This was followed by the Izumi Kyoka Prize for Literature for Tsuma ga shiitake datta koro (When My Wife Was a Shiitake) in 2014 and the Kawai Hayao Story Prize and Historical Fiction Writers Club Award for Katazuno! (One-Horn!) in 2015. Her other works include Ito no koi (Ito’s Romance) and Chobo zekka (A Magnificent View).