Masashi Matsuie (1958–) graduated from Waseda University and went to work for the Shinchosha Publishing Company where, as a fiction editor, he handled such writers as Haruki Murakami and launched Shincho Crest Books, an imprint specializing in translations of foreign works and which counts the Japanese translation of Bernhard Schlink's best-selling novel The Rea among its successes. Over the years Matsuie also had a hand in editing a number of the company's magazines, including stints as editor-in-chief of Kangaeru hito (The Thinker) and Geijutsu shincho (Shincho Art), before leaving the company in 2010. His debut as a novelist came in 2012 with the publication of Kazan no fumoto de (At the Foot of the Volcano), which received the Yomiuri Prize for Literature, an award that normally goes to seasoned authors who are well along in their careers. He also teaches special seminars at Keio University.
