Tomás Tanaka is a Peruvian-Japanese writer and translator raised between Lima and Yokohama. He studied sociology at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and later completed an MA in crime writing at the University of East Anglia. Before turning to fiction, he worked as a court interpreter in San Francisco and a fire-risk communications contractor in London, jobs that seeded his fascination with how institutions tell stories about danger. His short story collection Salt Lines won the Andean Noir Award and his novel Paper Tigers was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize. His reportage and essays have appeared in Granta en Español and Litro.
Tomás Tanaka lives in Deptford with his partner and a rescued whippet. When he isn’t writing, he volunteers with a community watch program and collects vintage safety posters. He frequently travels to Lima and Kobe to visit family and give workshops on multilingual narrative. He writes in Spanish and English, often blending both on the page.
