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Nahoko Uehashi
| Full Name: |
Nahoko
Uehashi |
| Born: |
July 15, 1962
Tokyo, Japan |
| Occupation: |
Writer, Professor of Ethnology |
| Nationality: |
Japanese |
| Links: |
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Biography
Nahoko Uehashi is a Japanese writer, primarily of juvenile fantasy books, for which she has won many awards.
Uehashi is also Professor of Ethnology at Kawamura Gakuen Women's University, having completed a PhD focusing on the Yamatji, an indigenous Australian people.
Uehashi's career as a writer started in 1989. Her first book was The Sacred Tree. She then wrote the novel O God, Sleep Ye in The Forest of Moon. This novel received an award from the Japanese Association of Writers for Children, which made her one of the famous Japanese-fantasy authors.
In 1996, she published the first book of her Moribito series, Guardian of the Spirit. The novel received the Noma Children's Literature New Face Prize and the Sankei Children's Culture and Publishing award and the English translation was awarded the Mildred L. Batchelder Award in 2009. In 1999, Uehashi published the second book of the Moribito series, Guardian of the Darkness. With this novel she received the Japanese Association of Writers for Children's award. In 2002 The Guardian series won the Iwaya Sazanami literature award, and in 2003, Guardian of the God won another Japanese award from the Shogakukan publishing company. Then, in 2003, Uehashi wrote the novel Beyond the Fox Whistle, which received a Noma Children's Literature award. In 2006 she wrote the two volume Kemono no Soja (lit. "The Beast Player"), which she complemented with two more volumes in 2009.
Both Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit and the first two volumes of Kemono no Soja have had anime adaptations, in 2007 and 2009, respectively. Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit has also been made into a radio drama and Kemono no Soja into a manga.
For her "lasting contribution" as a children's writer, Uehashi won the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2014. Announced late in March, it will be presented on 10 September at the annual conference of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) in Mexico City. According to the IBBY jury chaired by María Jesús Gil of Spain, "Uehashi tells stories that are replete with imagination, culture and the beauty of a sophisticated process and form. Her literary subjects are based on ancient Japanese mythology and science-fiction fantasy that are deeply rooted in human reality."
Works in the WWEnd Database
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