Shizuka Otake is a writer born in New York City. In her twenties, she lived in Tokyo for four years and now wishes she had a magic door between the two cities. She loves mystery novels, Japanese TV, and traveling – a.k.a. prowling bookstores and eating. 

Shizuka writes about identity and the need to find home. In 2022, she won Sisters in Crime’s Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award. Her unpublished novel Murder in Tokyo features Ayu Amita, a Japanese American teen hunting down a classmate’s killer in Tokyo.