is a Zainichi Korean playwright, novelist, and essayist. Yu writes in Japanese, her native language, but is a citizen of South Korea.

Early life

Yu was born in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture and grew up in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture as one of four children born to Korean parents. Her father, a son of Korean immigrants, worked at a pachinko gambling parlor. Her mother, a refugee from the Korean War who fled to Japan from South Korea, worked as a hostess in a bar.

Yu's father was often abusive, and eventually her parents divorced when Yu was a child. A frequent victim of bullying at school, and after several suicide attempts, she found refuge in literature after reading the literary works of Edgar Allan Poe, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William Faulkner, and Truman Capote.

Literary career

After dropping out of the Yokohama Kyoritsu Gakuen high school, she joined the Tokyo Kid Brothers (東京キッドブラザース) theater troupe and worked as an actress and assistant director. In 1986, she formed a troupe called Seishun Gogetsutō (青春五月党), and the first of several plays written by her was published in 1991. In November 2020, Tokyo Ueno Station won the National Book Award for Translated Literature for a translation by translator Morgan Giles.

In 2021, she was working on a novel about migrant workers titled Yonomori Station after Yonomori Station on the Jōban Line.

Her latest novel, The End of August, about a multi-generational Korean family living during the 1930s Japanese occupation, was published in 2023.

Personal life

Yu has experienced racist backlash to her work because of her ethnic background, with some events at bookstores being canceled due to bomb threats.

She is a single mother and has one son.

Published in English

  • "Full House" in Into the Light: An Anthology of Literature by Koreans in Japan edited by Melissa L. Wender. (2011). . Translated by Melissa L. Wender.
  • Gold Rush, Welcome Rain. (2002). . Translated by Stephen Snyder.
  • "Specimens of Families" in Zainichi Literature: Japanese Writings by Ethnic Koreans edited by John Lie. (2018). . Translated by Abbie (Miyabi) Yamamoto.
  • Tokyo Ueno Station, Tilted Axis. (2019). . Translated by Morgan Giles.
  • The End of August, Riverhead Books. (August 2023). . Translated by Morgan Giles.

References

</references>

  • La Valse de Miri Miri Yu's official Web site
  • Miri Yu's unofficial blog
  • Miri Yu's photoblog and diary
  • Miri Yu's other language works list
  • Miri Yu at J'Lit Books from Japan
  • Synopsis of Gold Rush at JLPP (Japanese Literature Publishing Project)