), and the 2008 Nakahara Chūya Prize for Contemporary Poetry for Sentan de, sasuwa sasareruwa soraeewa (先端で さすわ さされるわ そらええわ).

Her 2019 novel Natsu Monogatari, an expanded version of Chichi to Ran, became a bestseller and was translated into English under the title Breasts and Eggs.

[10] In 2019, Kawakami published Natsu Monogatari (Summer Stories), a considerably expanded version of her novella Chichi to Ran and received the 73rd Mainichi Publication Culture Award.

[12] The New York Times ran a review by Katie Kitamura on the day of publication, in which she observes, "Mieko Kawakami writes with a bracing lack of sentimentality, particularly when describing the lives of women.

She also incorporates experimental and poetic language into her short stories and novels, citing Lydia Davis and James Joyce as literary influences.

[citation needed] Japanese author, Haruki Murakami, called her his favorite young novelist[18] and has described her writing as "ceaselessly growing and evolving".