Megumu Sagisawa

was the pen name of Japanese novelist and writer . Her works of fiction have been described as focusing on topics such as complex interpersonal relationships and the anxieties of the youth.

Sagisawa published her debut novel in 1987, for which she became the youngest person to win the Bungakukai Prize for New Authors. She later won the 1992 Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature for and became a five-time nominee for the Akutagawa Prize.

Early life and family Megumu Sagisawa was born in Tokyo, Japan on 20 June 1968, as the youngest of four sisters. Her parents divorced when she was fifteen years old. Sagisawa was of Korean descent. Her grandmother, born in Taechon, Korea, was a first-generation Korean immigrant to Japan who lived in Tokyo and married a Japanese man.

Career Sagisawa published her debut novel in 1987, while she was in university, although she wrote it in high school.

In 1989, she published the novel , which became a candidate for the Akutagawa Prize, but did not win. She was awarded the 1992 Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature for her novel . While writing the novel, she learned that her grandmother was originally from Korea. She began studying Korean language abroad at Yonsei University in 1993. In 2002, she published an autobiographical novel titled . Her book was first published in late March 2004, and was set to be staged under her own production in June.

Personal life and death Sagisawa married director Gō Rijū in 1990. They divorced a year later. Following her death, Korean newspapers The Chosun Ilbo, The Hankyoreh, and The Dong-a Ilbo described her as one of Japan's leading female Korean writers.