The Japan Foundation is delighted to be bringing award-winning author Nao-cola YAMAZAKI to tour the UK this October. Nao-cola’s instant best-selling books Don’t Laugh at Other People’s Sex Lives （『人のセックスを笑うな』）and Beautiful Distance（『美しい距離』）have recently been translated and made available in English. 

Nao-cola YAMAZAKI is a highly respected author in Japan with admirers in the literary world including Asako YUZUKI. As a non-binary writer, Nao-cola recognises the importance of diversity and being an individual in society which they beautifully and sensitively put into writing. Nao-cola’s novels resonate with reader’s hearts and some have even been adapted into film, including a short story, Hand（『手』）, which was screened as part of the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme.

Beautiful Distance:

A man sits in a cafe, sipping a green juice and watching the world go by. A white butterfly flutters through the air; a calico cat jumps onto a wall; cherry blossom petals fall, softly, to the ground. Life, momentarily, stands still. Our unnamed narrator is preparing to visit his terminally ill wife in hospital.

Don’t Laugh at Other People’s Sex Lives:

Art student Isogai first models for one of his tutors, the much older Yuri, then begins a passionate affair with her. As he gets to know her better, he struggles to understand his own emotions and his place in the world, just as he yearns to be closer to her and for her to share more of herself with him.

About Nao-Cola YAMAZAKI:

Nao-Cola YAMAZAKI (山崎 ナオコーラ) is a Japanese writer. They pride themselves on writing ‘things no one else can say in words anyone can understand’. They have won the Bungei Prize and the Shimase Award for Love Stories and been nominated multiple times for the Akutagawa Prize. Their first title to be translated into English was FRIENDSHIP FOR GROWN-UPS, a chapbook published by Stranger Press in 2017 and similarly translated by the acclaimed Polly Barton. The Japan Times praised Yamazaki's "skill in evoking the ambiguity of contemporary life" and called the collection "a small book that says a lot about the way we live today". Their debut novel DON’T LAUGH AT OTHER PEOPLE’S SEX LIVES and their prize-winning BEAUTIFUL DISTANCE published this spring with Daunt Books in the UK, and is set to publish in the US with SJP Lit this September.

Date:

18 October 2026 - 24 October 2026

Venue:

CHELTENHAM LITERATURE FESTIVAL, CHELTENHAM 18 October, 17:00~ Click here for details and booking   MANCHESTER LITERATURE FESTIVAL, MANCHESTER 19 October, 18:30~ Click here for details and booking   DAUNT BOOKS, MARYLEBONE HIGH STREET 21 October, 19:00~ Booking information coming soon   PEMBROKE COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD 22 October, 17:00~ Booking information coming soon   STORYSMITH BOOKS, BRISTOL 23 October, 18:30~ Booking information coming soon   OFF THE SHELF FESTIVAL OF WORDS, SHEFFIELD 24 October, 15:00~ Booking information coming soon Click here for details and booking