After graduation Kizaki worked at
Teijin. She married her husband, a botanist named Hiromu Harada, in 1962, and they both moved to France and had two daughters. They briefly lived in
Pasadena, California, but soon returned to France. She studied comparative literature at the
University of Paris from 1976 to 1979. Her novel
Shizumeru Tera received the
Ministry of Education's Geijutsu Sensho New Writer's Award. She was awarded the Akutagawa Prize for
Aogiri, in 1985. It is a story about a young woman who nurses her aunt as she dies of
breast cancer. Though she was awarded the prize two members of the committee were critical of
Aogiri. Hideo Nakamura thought it was unlikely that the aunt would choose to die of cancer, while
Saiichi Maruya said that her portrayal of the aunt was irresponsible to her readers and the characters. On the other hand,
Fumio Niwa was impressed with her portrayal, and
Shotaro Yasuoka and
Shusaku Endo were impressed that she chose to write about a cancer patient at all. Kizaki was baptized into the
Catholic Church in 1982, which may explain the Christian themes in her work. Her work tends to be about women who overcome physical or spiritual problems. Kizaki has said that she draws spiritual guidance from
Thérèse of Lisieux. Her work also hints at mysteries with deep, meaningful answers that end up having simple explanations. == Publications ==