Hitomi Kanehara

Her hair is dyed a dirty yellow. She wears colored contact lenses to make her eyes look blue. Her dresses barely cover her panties, let alone her thighs, and showing her shoulders is a natural. Barely legal now, she’s been living with her lover since she was 15. And now, Hitomi Kanehara, a 20-year-old high school dropout, has become one of the youngest ever winners of the Akutagawa Prize, Japan’s most prestigious literary award.

Read the rest of the article at the Mainichi Daily News site.