is a Japanese novelist.
Hirano was born in Gamagori, Aichi prefecture, Japan. He published his first novel (Nisshoku, ) in 1998 and won the Akutagawa Prize the next year as one of the youngest winners ever (at 23 years of age). He graduated from the Law Department of Kyoto University in 1999. In 2005 he was nominated as a cultural ambassador and spent a year in France.
Novels () () The Only Form of Love () 2008 Dawn () 2009 A Man () 2018 Other Works, Essays, Dialogues, etc.
His short story "Clear Water" (Shimizu, ), translated by Anthony Chambers, appears in Modern Japanese Literature, Volume 2 (Columbia University Press, 2007), pp. 542–549.
The English translation by Brent de Chene and Charles De Wolf of Nisshoku (Eclipse), published by Columbia University Press (2024), was awarded the Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize, Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University (2025).
Awards 120th (1998) Akutagawa Prize 18th (2000) Kyoto Culture Prize 59th (2008) Education, Science and Technology Minister’s Art Encouragement Prize for New Writers, for Dam Break 19th (2009) Prix Deux Magots Bunkamura, for Dawn
External links Official Website