Born 1970 in Kanagawa Prefecture, Harada won the 34th NHK Creative Radio Drama Grand Prix in 2005 for Little Princess No. 2. In 2007, she won the 31st Subaru Literary Award for The Teatime That Doesn't Start. Her novel How to Use 3,000 Yen won the Miyazaki Book Award. Her other books include Dinner at the Night Library and many more.

Alison Watts is the award-winning translator of The Boy and the Dog, What You are Looking For is in the Library and other highly acclaimed contemporary Japanese fiction. She lives in Australia.