Yoko Tawada was born in Tokyo in 1960 and has studied at Waseda University. She has been living in Germany since 1982, where she also received her Ph.D. in German literature. Tawada received the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for The Bridegroom Was a Dog. In 1996 she won the Adalbert-von-Chamisso Prize, a German award recognizing foreign writers for their contributions to German culture. She also received the Goethe-Medal, an official decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. She writes in both German and Japanese.