13 Facts About Banana Yoshimoto

Banana Yoshimoto is the pen name of Japanese writer Mahoko Yoshimoto.

Banana Yoshimoto's father was the poet and critic Takaaki Yoshimoto, and her sister, Haruno Yoiko, is a well-known cartoonist in Japan.

Banana Yoshimoto graduated from Nihon University's College of Art with a major in literature.

Banana Yoshimoto began her writing career while working as a waitress at a golf club restaurant in 1987.

In November 1987, Banana Yoshimoto won the 6th Kaien Newcomer Writers Prize for Kitchen; in 1988, the novel was nominated for the Mishima Yukio Prize, and in 1989, it received the 39th Minister of Education's Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists.

Banana Yoshimoto's works include twelve novels and seven collections of essays which have together sold over six million copies worldwide.

Banana Yoshimoto's themes include love and friendship, the power of home and family, and the effect of loss on the human spirit.

Banana Yoshimoto says that her two main themes are "the exhaustion of young Japanese in contemporary Japan" and "the way in which terrible experiences shape a person's life".

Banana Yoshimoto's works describe the problems faced by youth, urban existentialism, and teenagers trapped between imagination and reality.

Banana Yoshimoto's works are targeted not only to the young and rebellious, but to grown-ups who are still young at heart.

Banana Yoshimoto admits that most of her artistic inspiration derives from her own dreams and that she'd like to always be sleeping and living a life full of dreams.

Banana Yoshimoto named American author Stephen King as one of her first major influences and drew inspiration from his non-horror stories.

In 1987, Banana Yoshimoto won the Kaien Newcomer Writers Prize, for Kitchen.