Simon Rowe

photo: Michiyo Fujimori

Simon Rowe grew up in Waipawa, New Zealand, and big city Australia when orange Fanta came in glass bottles and AM radio was king. He has lived in Japan for more than twenty-seven years, winning numerous awards for his short fiction and screenplays, including Pearl City: Stories from Japan and Elsewhere (2021 Best Indie Book Award) and Good Night Papa (2013 Best Asian Screenplay Contest). His stories about Japanese life and culture have appeared in The Paris Review, the New York Times, TIME (Asia), the South China Morning Post, The Straits Times, The Australian, and the Australian Financial Review.

He is author of the cosy mystery Mami Suzuki: Private Eye (Penguin Random House SEA 2023).

Hits and Near Misses

• Nominated, 2024 Ngaio Marsh Award (NZ) - Best First Novel, for Mami Suzuki: Private Eye
• Winner, 2023 Rising Stories Asia International Screenplay Pitching Competition, for HAM.
• Selected, 2022 The Best Asian Short Stories Anthology, Paris Match, Kitaab International Publishing, Singapore.
• Shortlisted, 2022, Sargeson Prize, New Zealand, for short story, The Mataroa Hills.
• Finalist, 2022 New Generation Indie Book Awards, (worldwide), Pearl City: Stories from Japan and Elsewhere.
• Winner, 2022 Writing in Kyoto Competition, (worldwide), Writers in Kyoto, Diary of a Rickshaw Puller.
• Winner, 2021 Best Indie Book Award (worldwide), Pearl City: Stories from Japan and Elsewhere.
• Selected, 2021 The Best Asian Poetry Anthology, Haiku from the Hood, Kitaab International Publishing, Singapore.
• Shortlisted, 2021 Rubery Book Award (worldwide), Pearl City: Stories from Japan and Elsewhere.
• Selected, 2019 The Best Asian Short Stories Anthology, The Convenience Store Ballerina, pp 85-101, Kitaab International Publishing, Singapore. 

• Commended, 2018 BBC World Radio playwriting contest, for The Pearl Diver.
• Winner, 2017 Hal Porter Short Story Prize, Australia, for Crossing The Ditch.
• Shortlisted, 2016 Open Road Review Short Story Prize, worldwide, for Baby Grand.

• Finalist, 2016 Hollyshorts Film Festival, Los Angeles, U.S., for the short screenplay The Girl From Pearl City.
• Semi-finalist, 2016 Scriptapalooza Screenplay Contest, Los Angeles, U.S., for the short screenplay The Pilgrim.
• Finalist, 2015 Hollyshorts Film Festival, Los Angeles, U.S., for the short screenplay The Foonabiki Barbers.
• Winner, The Paris Review’s Windows on the World essay competition, 2014, New York, U.S.

• Winner, 2013 Asian Short Film Script Competition, worldwide, for Good Night Papa. Movie produced by JBF Entertainment, viewable on YouTube (judge: Michelle Yeoh; director: Yu Inose).
• Winner, 2007, Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold Award for travel journalism, for Tea For Twenty Million, Cathay Pacific Airlines' Discovery magazine.
• ​Winner, 1996, STA Travel Snap Up The World travel photography competition (Australia), for Praying Cao Dai Monks, Vietnam.

​Literary Festival Appearances​​

"Writers Across Borders", 2024 Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, Mumbai, India
"The Perfect Crime", 2024 Jaipur Literature Festival, Jaipur, India
"Whodunnit", 2024 Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival, Kolkata, India
"New Asian Writing", 2024 Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters, Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), India

Author Interviews​

Author Q & A with Simon Rowe | Boulder Bookstore, Colorado, USA
In Conversation with Simon Rowe | Hindustan Times of India
Author Interview: Simon Rowe | Swipe the Book
Q & A: Simon Rowe, Author of Mami Suzuki: Private Eye | The Nerd Daily
Simon Rowe — Member Spotlight | SWET: The Society of Writers, Editors, and Translators
An Interview with Simon Rowe | JALT Publications 
Simon Rowe Goes Marketing | Writers In Kyoto 
How a Gold Tooth from Marrakesh and Kung fu from Dengfeng Inspired Stories | KITAAB
Simon Rowe: Adventures in Self-Publishing | Tablo