Aoko Matsuda

Where the Wild Ladies Are takes the ghosts of Japanese rakugo and kabuki tradition and puts them to work in the present, mostly as women who have stopped apologising. Aoko Matsuda published the collection in Japanese in 2016 as Obachan-tachi no iru tokoro, and Polly Barton's English translation appeared in 2020 from Tilted Axis Press in Britain and Soft Skull Press in America, winning the World Fantasy Award for best collection and a Firecracker Award in 2021. Matsuda was born in Hyogo Prefecture on 11 October 1979 and studied English at Doshisha University. Her debut collection, Stackable, drew nominations for the Mishima Yukio Prize and the Noma Literary New Face Prize, and her story The Woman Dies was shortlisted for a Shirley Jackson Award in 2019. She also translates into Japanese, including work by Karen Russell, Amelia Gray and Carmen Maria Machado.