The Izumi Suzuki Collection

Image courtesy © Nobuyoshi Araki

Izumi Suzuki (1949-1986) is a proto-cyberpunk writer who has gained cult status in Japan. She was born in Itō, Japan and worked several jobs following her graduation from high school including keypunch operator, model for photographer Nobuyoshi Araki, and actress in films by Kōji Wakamatsu.

Suzuki first reached a mass audience when S-F Magazine, a popular Japanese science fiction publication published “The Witch’s Apprentice.” She went on to publish books essays and short stories after struggling with her marriage to Kaoru Abe, a renowned jazz saxophonist.The marriage would last for five years, and it was a notoriously chaotic one, depicted in the film Koji Wakamatsu's film Endless Waltz. Abe died from an accidental drug overdose after the collapse of their fiver year tumultuous marriage.

In 1986, Suzuki committed suicide at the age of 36. With Verso's recent publication of three collections of short stories translated into English by Polly Barton, Sam Bett, David Boyd, Daniel Joseph, Aiko Masubuchi and Helen O'Horan, Suzuki's work is now available to the English-speaking world.