Japanese author Saou Ichikawa made history when she released her debut novel, Hunchback.

As well as winning the 2023 Bungakukai Newcomer of the Year Award, the novel was awarded the Akutagawa Prize – making Ichikawa the first writer with a physical disability to receive Japan’s most prestigious literary accolade.

“I thought that a novel about the intersectionality of being a woman and having a disability should also be part of the feminist literature – if there is such a thing – that is currently being circulated . This led me to write Hunchback,” says Ichikawa.

The novel follows Shaka Izawa, a woman who, like Ichikawa, has congenital myopathy. The condition means that Ichikawa uses an electric wheelchair and a ventilator to live everyday life.

Through Shaka’s story, Ichikawa depicts the daily experience and sexual desires of a woman with a disability, sharing sharp insights into a reality not often represented in feminist fiction.

We spoke to her about perseverance (Ichikawa had been submitting entries to writing competitions for more than two decades before Hunchback) and the transformative apps that help her in her work.

To create and share her writing, Ichikawa uses a selection of devices and apps, including her iPad mini, iPhone and IText Pad.

“IText Pad lets you write vertically. Although the app’s screen is on a horizontal setting when inputting things, I can check my work in various layouts, including manuscript paper settings. Most importantly, it’s sleek and comfortable to use,” she says.

Other go-to apps for the author include Adobe Acrobat Reader and Microsoft Word, for checking copy and adding comments, and Dropbox, for sharing the data with her laptop. “I also use Kindle when I want to read something, as well as Text-To-Speech when I have difficulty speaking out loud on my own,” she says.

And when it comes to publishing: “There are various novel sites for sharing your work, and Kindle Direct Publishing, where you can publish your own e-books and paper books.”

Apps and devices also enable the author to more easily connect with the wider world.

“I believe that can contribute to people with various characteristics – low vision, neurodivergence and dyslexia, for example – getting to use, enjoy and conveniently live with their devices by improving or refining UI accessibility.”

“For people like me, who have disabilities, devices are an essential means for connecting with society. You can [use them to] read books and watch movies. You can access digital libraries and museums, and participate in the community through social media,” Ichikawa explains.

“[Improved accessibility] will help make the figures and voices of people with disabilities who have had difficulty connecting with the real world become more visible, and cause society to become more aware of issues like information accessibility and barrier-free access to reading.”

Ichikawa’s interest in the convergence of disability, women and literature piqued during her university studies in lifelong learning and, subsequently, human sciences.

“Disability studies and women’s studies are not only adjacent in the sense that they encompass minorities, but they also overlap in the case of someone like me, a woman with a disability,” she says.

Female solidarity, in particular, is important to Ichikawa. Which is why International Women’s Day, celebrated every year on 8 March, is a special moment for the writer.

“I have a friend who has been like a comrade to me for a decade as I created my work. We’ve read each other’s novels for [various writing competitions] and shared feedback with one another.

“We’ve encouraged each other when our submissions passed or didn’t make the cut. It’s been a really long, long process. Without her encouragement, I don’t think I could have managed to continue until now,” she says.

The writer also cites Tomoko Yonezu, a female activist with a disability, as a source of inspiration – she even appears in Hunchback as someone Shaka admires. “Yonezu has stayed focused on intersectionality since the days of the [1970] women’s liberation movement. As a disabled woman myself, I respect Yonezu.”

Attempting to follow a debut as impressive as Hunchback could intimidate many creatives – but this doesn’t seem to be the case for Ichikawa.

“For 20 years, I’ve been submitting novels, mainly centring on [Japanese YA fiction]. Especially in the past decade, the difference between myself and those who easily made their debut became clearer, which left me frustrated. It felt as though I was facing a high, steep cliff,” she says.

“I’m still stunned that the cliff I was facing disappeared. Although I don’t have the next big goal in mind, for now, I plan to complete one book, and then go onto the next one.

“Once that one is done, I will write another one, and so on, and so on. I still need to do the same thing I had to do back in the day when I was making submissions – fall seven times, get up eight while writing novels. I will continue to carry on as I always have.”