Kazuo Ishiguro Biography

When/where was Ishiguro born?

Nagisaki, Japan, 1954

Who was Kazuo Ishiguro’s father?

Shizuo Ishiguro, an oceanographer

When did the Ishiguros move to Britain?

1960

Where did Ishiguro go to college and for what?

University of Kent, English and philosophy

When did Ishiguro graduate?

1978

Who is Ishiguro’s wife?

Lorna Anne McDougall

What did Ishiguro do when he decided he wanted to pursue fiction writing more seriously?

Enroll in the Creative Writing Program at the University of East Angila

Who were Ishiguro’s teachers at East Angila?

Angela Carter and Malcolm Bradbury

Who was Angela Carter?

A novelist known for her fantastic and erotic reimaginings of fairy tales

Who was Malcolm Bradbury?

A literary critic and novelist

What other famous author did Malcolm Bradbury mentor?

Ian McEwan

When did Ishiguro graduate with an M.A.?

1980

In what did Ishiguro enter the literary scene?

Introduction 7: Stories by New Writers

What was Ishiguro’s first novel?

‘A Pale View of Hills’ (1982)

What is ‘A Pale View of Hills’ about?

A Japanese woman named Etsuko who survives the Nagasaki bombings and now lives in rural England

What prize did ‘A Pale View of Hills’ win?

The Royal Society of Literature’s Winifred Hotby Memorial Prize

What is the Winifred Holtby Prize now known as?

The Ondaatje Prize

Who are some winners of the Ondaatje/Winifred Holtby Prize?

Hilary Mantel and Anna Burns

What honors did ‘An Artist of the Floating World’ receive?

It won the Whitbread Book of the Year Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker

Who wrote ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’?

Margaret Atwood

Who wrote ‘The Old Devils’?

Kingsley Amis

What is ‘An Artist of the Floating World’ about?

The collapse of the Japanese Empire after WWII

Who is the narrator of ‘An Artist of the Floating World’?

Masuriji Ono, an artist

Critics often grouped Ishiguro with other emerging talent such as…

Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, Julian Barnes, Salman Rudshie, and Jeannette Winterson

What does Lawrence Graver write for?

The New York Times

Who are Ishiguro’s idols?

Anton Chekhov and Fyodor Dostoevsky

When was ‘The Remains of the Day’ adapted?

1993

Who produced the 1993 adaptation?

Merchant Ivory Productions

Who founded Merchant Ivory productions?

Director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant

Many of the films produced by Merchant Ivory Productions were made by the novelist…

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

What made Ruth Prawler Jhabvala famous?

Adaptations of ‘Howard’s End’ and ‘A Room With a View’, ‘Mr and Mrs Bridge’, and several Henry James novels

Who wrote ‘Howard’s End’ and ‘A Room With a View’?

E.M Forester

What was ‘Mr. and Mrs. Bridge’ adapted from?

To Evan S. Cornell novels

When was ‘The Unconsoled’ written?

1995

Absudrists such as _________ inspired ‘The Unconsoled

Franz Kafka and Milan Kundera

When was ‘When we Were Orphans’ written?

2000

When was ‘Never Let me Go’ written?

2005

Who directed the adaptation of Never Let me Go?

Mark Romaneck

Who adapted Never Let me Go?

Alex Garland

Whose careers did the Never Let me Go film catapult?

Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield

What is Ishiguro’s latest novel?

Klara and the Sun

What are Ishiguro’s screenwriting credits?

The Saddest Music in the World (2003), The White Countess (2005) and Living (2022)

Which of Ishiguro’s screenwriting credits was produced by Merchant Ivory?

‘The White Countess’ (2005)

What is ‘Living’?

An adaptation of the Akira Kurosawa film Ikiru

When did Ishiguro write ‘The Buried Giant’?

2015

When was ‘Klara and the Sun’ made?

2021

When did Ishiguro win the Nobel Prize?

2017

Ishiguro is the ____ Japanese-born laurate

Third

Aside from Ishiguro, what other Japanese people have won the Nobel

Yasunari Kawabata and Kenzoburo Oe

Who delivered Ishiguro’s award speech?

Professor Sara Danius