Osamu Dazai (1909-1948) was the pen name of Shuji Tsushima, the tenth of eleven children born to a wealthy landowner and politician in the far north of Japan. Dazai studied French literature at the University of Tokyo, but never received a degree. He first attracted attention in 1933 when magazines began to publish his work. Between 1930 and 1937, he made three suicide attempts, a subject he deals with in many of his short stories. Despite his troubled life and rebellious spirit, Dazai wrote in simple and colloquial style, conveying his personal torments through literature. Dazai's life ended early in a double suicide with a married lover.

Juliet Winters Carpenter is an award-winning American translator of modern Japanese fiction who studied Japanese literature at the University of Michigan and the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Tokyo. After completing her studies, she returned to Japan where she became involved in translation and teaching. She is professor emeritus at Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts in Kyoto and has received numerous awards for her translation work including the 2019-2020 William F. Sibley Memorial Award for Japanese Translation for Mizumura Minae's An I-Novel and the 2021-2022 Lindsey and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize for a lifetime of achievement as a translator of modern Japanese literature.