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Natsu Minami

みなみ なつ

Minami Natsu

Pen Names: Natsu Minami（Pen name used at debut; derived from the 'Minami' in the name of admired children's writer Nankichi Niimi.）

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
/** unknown **/ null （Shizuoka Prefecture）
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese

Career

Occupations
Novelist
Active Years
2005-
Influenced By
Nankichi Niimi

Awards

Bungei Prize
2005
Work: Heisei Machine Guns
Organization: Bungei (Magazine)
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Heisei Machine Guns

2005 Fiction

A collection of short stories depicting contemporary society and youth from a young writer's perspective. Centered on the award-winning piece Heisei Machine Guns.

youthcoming-of-ageidentity

Bibliography

  • Heisei Machine Guns (book, Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 2005)
  • Heisei Machine Guns (Bungei, Winter 2005; debut piece)
  • Hole (Bungei, Winter 2010; included in paperback edition)
  • Lies, Truth, and Otherwise (Bungei, Spring 2010)
  • The Four-Eyed Chair (Bungei, Summer 2010)
  • I Was Waiting for This Moment (Bungei, Winter 2011)
  • I Need You (Bungei, Winter 2013)
  • Discovering Fiction (Conversation with Genichiro Takahashi, Bungei, Spring 2006)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Concise, contemporary narrative voiceDepictions rooted in the perspective of a younger generation
Recurring Motifs
youthsubtle disruptions of everyday lifeshifts in identity

Legacy

Attracted attention by becoming the youngest-ever recipient of the 42nd Bungei Prize at age 15. Subsequent activity has been intermittent, but she is cited as an example of a young writer born in the 1990s.

Trivia

  • Won the 42nd Bungei Prize at age 15, becoming the youngest recipient in the prize's history.
  • Real name and exact birth date are not publicly disclosed (real name withheld).
  • The pen name 'Minami' is said to be derived from Nankichi Niimi's 'Minami'.
  • Has appeared at the award press conference and in some magazine/online interviews.