This book explores desire through the work of a new generation of Japanese women writers, in response to the increased attention these writers have received following the release of their work in the English language.

Nina Cornyetz is a professor of interdisciplinary studies at New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Instruction, USA, and is the author of The Ethics of Aesthetics in Japanese Cinema and Literature: Polygraphic Desire (Routledge, 2007).

Rebecca Copeland is a professor of modern Japanese literature at Washington University in St. Louis, USA, and is the author of the novel The Kimono Tattoo (2021).

Introduction 1. The Step to Trample the Unexplored: Family, School Girlishness (Joshi k¿k¿sei rashisa), and Lesbian Panic in Matsuura Rieko's Saiai no kodomo (The Most Beloved Child, 2017) 2. Body and/as Food: Rediscovering Female Subjectivity through the Mother-Daughter Dyad in Kawakami Hiromi's Manazuru (2006) 3. Intersectional Identity in the Works of Tawada Y¿ko: An Analysis of "Unhomely" Sounds in the Mother Tongue 4. Writing and Being Written: Approaches to Reading the Narrative of Kanai Mieko's "Mado" (Window, 1979) 5. Envisioning Community through Women's Spaces: Body, Precarity, and Language in Kawakami Mieko's Natsu monogatari (Breasts and Eggs, 2019) 6. Writing a Place for Politics in the Space of Capital: Oyamada Hiroko's K¿j¿ (The Factory, 2013)