KIT PANCOAST NAGAMURA, a Tokyo resident since 1991, has a Ph.D. in literature and has won various teaching and writing awards. She works as a freelance writer and editor, and as an acquisitions editor at Kodansha Ltd. She has authored or coauthored three English-language phrase books for Japanese learners of English. She regularly writes for the Japan Times and other media outlets.
KYOKO TSUCHIYA was born in Nagoya, Japan, and graduated from the Tokyo University Faculty of Liberal Arts, where she majored in American studies. She is a professional translator. Among the works she has rendered into Japanese are Emotional Intelligence (Daniel Goleman), Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (Rebecca Wells), and The Yearling (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings).