Mariko Ōhara

is a Japanese science fiction writer. She won the 6th Hayakawa SF Contest in 1980, when she was still a student. Later she published various SF works and became the 10th president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Japan. Ōhara is the Winner of the Nihon SF Taisho Award in 1994.

Biography Ōhara was born in Osaka. She wrote Kirk/Spock fan fiction in her teens. She graduated in psychology from the University of the Sacred Heart (Japan) .

Ōhara won the 6th Hayakawa SF Contest for her short story "Hitori de Aruite itta Neko (A Cat who Walked along Alone)" in 1980. Next year, in 1981, she graduated from the University and started publishing her stories in the S-F Magazine. She belongs to the 3rd generation of the Japanese SF writers.

In 1991, her "Haiburiddo Chairudo, Hybrid Child" ( won the Seiun Award for Japanese novel. Then, in 1995 she won the 15th Nihon SF Taisho Award for "Sensō-wo Enjita Kamigamitachi, Gods who Bandied War" .

She was a science fiction reviewer for Asahi Shimbun from April 1998 to March 2002, and she was on the jury for the Nihon SF Taisho Awards from 1997 to 1999. She was also the 10th president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Japan from September 1999 to September 2001.

Ōhara is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Japan, of the Japanese Writers' Association (JA), and, of the Nihon Pen Club (JA).

Awards 1980: 6th Hayakawa SF Contest Award for Hitori de Aruite itta Neko 1991: 22nd Seiun Award (Japanese long novel) for Hybrid Child 1994: 15th Nihon SF Taisho Award for Sensō wo Enjita Kamigami-tachi 1998: 19th Seiun Award (Japanese short novel) for Independence Day in Ōsaka

Selected works Novels Hitori de Aruite itta Neko , 1982, Hayakawa Publishing Kikaishin Asura , 1983, Hayakawa Publishing Ginga Network de Uta wo Utatta Kujira , 1984, Hayakwa Publishing Miika wa Miika, Trouble Maker , 1985, Shueisha Miraishi-tachi , 1986, Hayakawa Publishing Ishi no Koku City , 1986, Tokuma Shoten

Mental Female , 1988, Hayakawa Publishing

Hybrid Child (, Haiburiddo Chairudo), 1990, Hayakawa Publishing

Kyōfu no Katachi , 1993, Asahi Sonorama Sensō wo Enjita Kamigami-tachi , 1994, Aspect Sensō wo Enjita Kamigami-tachi II ( II), 1997, Askie Aspect Archaic States , 1997, Hayakawa Publishing Mitsumeru Onna , 1999, Kousaidou

Works in English translation "The Mental Female" (The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Summer 2002) "Girl" (Speculative Japan, Kurodahan Press, 2007) "The Whale that Sang on the Milky Way Network" (Speculative Japan 2, Kurodahan Press, 2011) Hybrid Child (trans. Jodie Beck, University of Minnesota Press, 2018)

Video game works Mariko Ōhara did the scenario for Quintet's video game Illusion of Gaia, along with Masaya Hashimoto and Tomoyoshi Miyazaki.

Notes and references

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction page 641