Michiko Niikuni Wilson, professor of Japanese language and literature at the University of Virginia, has authored both works of literary criticisms and translations. Her critical work The Marginal World of Kenzaburo Ôe: A Study in Themes and Techniques (1986) was the first on Oe to appear in English, and her English translation of one of his major novels, The Pinch Runner Memorandum, appeared shortly before his Nobel Prize award announcement. Professor Wilson is also the author of Gender Is Fair Game: (Re)Thinking the (Fe)Male in Minako Ôba's Works (1999). Her translation into English of Ôba's best-known novel, Birds Crying, will be available in 2007. She is also the editor of the EastBridge Japanese literature-in-translation series, Japanese Horizons.