Eiko Kadono author page

Eiko Kadono biography

Eiko Kadono is a Japanese children’s author and translator whose work includes picture books, fantasy, fiction for young people and essays. She studied American literature and began writing after spending time travelling in Europe and North and South America. Over her career she has published nearly 200 original works and translated more than 100 books into Japanese.

Her best-known work is Kiki’s Delivery Service, originally published in Japan as Majo no Takkyūbin in 1985. The story follows young witch Kiki as she leaves home and establishes a delivery service using her ability to fly. It became the first of six books about Kiki and was selected for the IBBY Honour List in 1986. The original novel also received the Noma Children’s Literature Award and the Shogakukan Children’s Publication Culture Award.

Kiki’s Delivery Service was adapted into the 1989 animated film directed by Hayao Miyazaki for Studio Ghibli. English editions of Kadono’s novel have included translations by Lynne E. Riggs and Emily Balistrieri, with the latter edition published in the UK by Puffin and illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton.

Kadono’s other children’s books include the Little Ghosts series and works such as Tales of an Old Sea Captain and Grand Thief Burabura. She received Japan’s Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2000 and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, in 2014.

In 2018, Kadono won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing, IBBY’s international award recognising a lasting contribution to children’s literature. A further Kiki novel, Kiki and the New Magic, translated by Emily Balistrieri and illustrated by Yuta Onoda, was published in English by Delacorte Press in August 2026.