Rio Shimamoto

Rio Shimamoto (島本 理生, Shimamoto Rio) is a Japanese writer. She has won the Gunzo Prize for New Writers, the Noma Literary New Face Prize and the Naoki Prize, and her work has been adapted for film. Shimamoto was born in 1983 in Tokyo, Japan. She made her literary debut in 2001 with her story Shiruetto (Silhouette) while still a student at Tokyo Metropolitan Shinjuku Yamabuki Senior High School, winning the 44th Gunzo Prize for New Writers. Her 2002 novella Little by Little won the 25th Noma Literary New Face Prize and was nominated for an Akutagawa Prize, but did not win. Shimamoto was the youngest person to receive the Noma Literary New Face Prize in its history.In 2005 her novel Narratage was published and became a bestseller in Japan. A year later, Shimamoto dropped out of Rikkyo University to pursue her writing full-time. After being nominated for the Akutagawa Prize four times and the Naoki Prize twice, Shimamoto won the 159th Naoki Prize for her 2018 book First Love. The Naoki Prize committee members were not unanimous in their decision, but finally selected Shimamoto's work after multiple rounds of voting.Shimamoto's novel Narratage was adapted by director Isao Yukisada into a 2017 film of the same name starring Kasumi Arimura and Jun Matsumoto. Her 2013 novel Yodaka no Kataomoi (lit. The Nighthawk's Unrequited Love), a story about a woman named Aiko, born with a large blue birthmark on her face, who navigates prejudice as she seeks love, was adapted by director Yūka Yasukawa into a 2022 film of the same name starring Rena Matsui as Aiko.Shimamoto has cited Shuji Terayama as a literary influence.