Hirata Toshiko is a well-known, deeply beloved Japanese poet whose plainspoken style, dark humor, and sharp, witty turns of phrase lend a unique texture to her feminism. Remarkably, she has received or been nominated for major national prizes in poetry as well as fiction and playwriting. Her collection, Shinanoka (Tokyo, Shichōsha, 2004), received the Hagiwara Sakutaro Prize for poetry, and has been translated into English as Is It Poetry? by Spencer Thurlow & Eric E. Hyett (Deep Vellum, 2024).