Life
Wataya graduated from Murasakino High School in Kyoto.
Her first novella, Install, written when she was 17, was awarded the 38th Bungei Prize.
She graduated from Waseda University in Tokyo. Her thesis focused on the structure of Osamu Dazai's Hashire merosu (走れ、メロス Run, Melos!).
Wataya rose to fame in 2003 upon receiving the Akutagawa Prize for her short novel Keritai Senaka ("The Back You Want to Kick"), while at Waseda University. The prize was shared between Wataya and Hitomi Kanehara, another young, female author. At the age of 19, Wataya became the youngest author—and the third student—ever to receive this greatly prestigious award, the first two student winners having been Shintarō Ishihara and Keiichiro Hirano.
Wataya's works have been translated into German, Italian, French, and Korean.
In 2004, her novel Install was adapted into a film starring Aya Ueto.
In 2012, her novel Kawaisou da ne? ("Isn't it a pity?") won the Kenzaburo Oe Prize, meaning that the novel will be translated into English and other languages.
Read more about this topic: Risa Wataya
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“...all enjoyment is dependent upon the frailty of human life and human desires ... if we were to have all we want and to live forever, all enjoyment would be gone.”
—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)
“One’s prime is elusive. You little girls, when you grow up, must be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. You must then live it to the full.”
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“We have had many harbingers and forerunners; but of a purely spiritual life, history has afforded no example. I mean we have yet no man who has leaned entirely on his character, and eaten angels’ food; who, trusting to his sentiments, found life made of miracles; who, working for universal aims, found himself fed, he knew not how; clothed, sheltered, and weaponed, he knew not how, and yet it was done by his own hands.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)