Yukiko Motoya (本谷 有希å , Motoya Yukiko, born July 14, 1979) is
a Japanese novelist, playwright, theatre director, and former voice
actress. She has won numerous Japanese literary and dramatic awards,
including the Akutagawa Prize, the Noma Literary New Face Prize, the
Mishima Yukio Prize, the Kenzaburo Oe Prize, the Kishida Kunio Drama
Award, and the Tsuruya Nanboku Drama Award. Her work has been adapted
multiple times for film.Motoya was born in Hakusan, Ishikawa. As a
child she read mystery stories by Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle,
and Edogawa Ranpo, as well as horror manga. After completing high
school, Motoya moved to Tokyo to study acting, and won a voice acting
role in the Hideaki Anno anime adaptation of Kare Kano, but switched
her focus to writing after a teacher praised a short play Motoya wrote
for the school's graduation ceremony. She founded her own theater
company, called Gekidan Motoyo Yukiko (Motoya Yukiko Theater Company),
in 2000, and began writing and staging her own plays.In 2002, prompted
by a magazine editor's invitation, Motoya made her fiction debut with
the short story Eriko to zettai (Eriko and Absolutely). It became the
title story of a 2003 collection published by Kodansha. Her novel
Funuke domo kanashimi no ai o misero (Funuke Show Some Love, You
Losers!) was published in 2005. It was adapted into the 2007 Daihachi
Yoshida film Funuke Show Some Love, You Losers!, starring Eriko Sato
and Hiromi Nagasaku, which was shown at the Cannes Film
Festival.Motoya's novel Ikiteru dake de ai (Love at Least), about an
unemployed and apparently depressed woman's relationship with her
boyfriend, was published in 2006 by Shinchosha. Ikiteru dake de ai was
nominated for the Akutagawa Prize, and was later adapted into a 2018
film of the same name. Motoya's 2009 novel Ano ko no kangaeru koto wa
hen (That Girl's Got Some Strange Ideas) was nominated for the 141st
Akutagawa Prize. She was nominated a third time for her 2011 novel
Nurui doku (Warm Poison), about a woman who has a relationship with a
pathological liar claiming to be a former high school classmate.
Though Nurui doku did not win the Akutagawa Prize, it won the 33rd
Noma Literary New Face Prize. Motoya subsequently won the 7th
Kenzaburo Oe Prize for her 2012 collection Arashi no pikunikku (Picnic
in the Storm), and the 27th Mishima Yukio Prize for her 2013 novel
Jibun wo suki ni naru houhou.
a Japanese novelist, playwright, theatre director, and former voice
actress. She has won numerous Japanese literary and dramatic awards,
including the Akutagawa Prize, the Noma Literary New Face Prize, the
Mishima Yukio Prize, the Kenzaburo Oe Prize, the Kishida Kunio Drama
Award, and the Tsuruya Nanboku Drama Award. Her work has been adapted
multiple times for film.Motoya was born in Hakusan, Ishikawa. As a
child she read mystery stories by Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle,
and Edogawa Ranpo, as well as horror manga. After completing high
school, Motoya moved to Tokyo to study acting, and won a voice acting
role in the Hideaki Anno anime adaptation of Kare Kano, but switched
her focus to writing after a teacher praised a short play Motoya wrote
for the school's graduation ceremony. She founded her own theater
company, called Gekidan Motoyo Yukiko (Motoya Yukiko Theater Company),
in 2000, and began writing and staging her own plays.In 2002, prompted
by a magazine editor's invitation, Motoya made her fiction debut with
the short story Eriko to zettai (Eriko and Absolutely). It became the
title story of a 2003 collection published by Kodansha. Her novel
Funuke domo kanashimi no ai o misero (Funuke Show Some Love, You
Losers!) was published in 2005. It was adapted into the 2007 Daihachi
Yoshida film Funuke Show Some Love, You Losers!, starring Eriko Sato
and Hiromi Nagasaku, which was shown at the Cannes Film
Festival.Motoya's novel Ikiteru dake de ai (Love at Least), about an
unemployed and apparently depressed woman's relationship with her
boyfriend, was published in 2006 by Shinchosha. Ikiteru dake de ai was
nominated for the Akutagawa Prize, and was later adapted into a 2018
film of the same name. Motoya's 2009 novel Ano ko no kangaeru koto wa
hen (That Girl's Got Some Strange Ideas) was nominated for the 141st
Akutagawa Prize. She was nominated a third time for her 2011 novel
Nurui doku (Warm Poison), about a woman who has a relationship with a
pathological liar claiming to be a former high school classmate.
Though Nurui doku did not win the Akutagawa Prize, it won the 33rd
Noma Literary New Face Prize. Motoya subsequently won the 7th
Kenzaburo Oe Prize for her 2012 collection Arashi no pikunikku (Picnic
in the Storm), and the 27th Mishima Yukio Prize for her 2013 novel
Jibun wo suki ni naru houhou.
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