Japanese Literary Awards

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Bungakukai Newcomer Award ぶんがくかいしんじんしょう

Edition 129 (2024)

LiteratureNewcomer award

Winners

2 people
Risako Hatahara はたはら りさこ award

A diviner living a quiet, insular life receives an unexpected call from her middle school friend Miki, who confesses she was raped by her husband's brother and is now pregnant. The only condition the family will accept for an abortion is that it be performed by a legendary practitioner known as "Ejiu." Guided by tarot, the protagonist travels to a remote island in search of this elusive figure, moving through a dreamlike journey toward the site of the procedure. The novel asks who owns a body, and who gets to decide — tracing each character's claim to being, in the end, no one's but their own.

"It's not about whose it is" — a strange and urgent journey about bodily ownership and the meaning of choice.

424 pages
bodily autonomy and self-determinationsexual violence and silenceisolation and social anxietyabortion and the ethics of choicefolklore, myth, and everyday reality
福海隆 ふくうみ りゅう award

A gay office worker in his second year of employment and his college-student partner try to enjoy a quiet Sunday, only to be repeatedly interrupted by an ally (LGBT supporter) woman who is the partner's classmate. Told through a non-chronological structure of 19 rearranged 'pulp' sections, the story weaves together scenes of their peaceful Sundays and the days when plans with the ally woman intrude.

Through a non-chronological structure of 19 rearranged 'pulp' sections, scenes of their peaceful Sundays and the days shadowed by plans with the ally woman are interwoven and told.

divide between LGBT individuals and allieswell-intentioned interference and privacy violationtenderness found in everyday detailsfragmented time and memory through non-linear structure