Nanae Kumagai was born in 1964 in Aomori, Japan but raised in Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture.
[6] In 2005 Onda won the 26th Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for New Writers and the 2nd Japan Booksellers' Award Grand Prize for her novel Yoru no pikunikku (夜のピクニック, Nighttime Picnic), a story about two half-siblings participating in their school's annual hike.
[7] Yoru no pikunikku was adapted into a 2006 film of the same name, directed by Masahiko Nagasawa and starring Mikako Tabe.
[9] The next year she won the 20th Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize for her book Nakaniwa no dekigoto (中庭の出来事, The Incident in the Courtyard), a complex story about a playwright writing a play about a playwright who is murdered while writing a play.
[10][11] Onda's 2011 novel Yumechigai (夢違, Mistaken Dreams) was adapted into the 2012 television drama My Little Nightmare (Akumu-chan), starring Keiko Kitagawa and shown on Nippon TV.