Murakami receives international short story award

Japanese author Haruki Murakami was awarded the 2006 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award for “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.” The book is a collection of 25 short stories that Murakami wrote between 1981 and 2005. It was published in English, with translations done by Philip Gabriel and Jay Rubin.

The presentation ceremony took place on Sunday in Cork, Ireland. Murakami was not present to receive the award (which includes a prize of 35,000 euros), so Rubin attended to accept the prize on his behalf.

Murakami is an internationally established novelist, known for works such as “Norwegian Wood” and “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.” Earlier this year, he was also awarded the Czech Republic’s Franz Kafka Award for Literature.