Mizuki Tsujimura 辻村 深月

Mizuki Tsujimura (1980–) was an avid reader from an early age, and while still in grade school was so struck by Yukito Ayatsuji’s puzzler Jukkakukan no satsujin (Murder at Jukkaku Hall) that she began writing mysteries of her own. She made her literary debut in 2004 by winning the Mephisto Award for Tsumetai kōsha no toki wa tomaru (Time Stops in the Ice-Cold School), an expansive novel she had first begun writing in high school and spent her college years completing; it was none other than Ayatsuji who phoned to notify her of the award. Her mother-daughter novel Zero hachi zero nana (Zero Eight Zero Seven) was short-listed for the Naoki Prize in 2010. In 2011 she won the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for New Writers for Tsunagu (Link), and was short-listed for the Naoki once again with Ōdā meido satsujin kurabu (Made-to-Order Murder Club). She finally won the Naoki Prize in 2012 for her story collection Kagi no nai yume wo miru (Dreaming a Dream without a Key). Also in 2012, her novel-length cozy mystery Honjitsu wa taian nari (It’s an Auspicious Day) was adapted into a television series. Other works include the youth novel Shima wa bokura to (Our Island), Mōmoku-tekina koi to yūjō (Blind Love and Friendship), and Haken anime! (Anime Supremacy!).