Yoshimoto Banana is the pen name of Japanese writer Yoshimoto Mahoko.

Yoshimoto graduated from Nihon University's College of Art with a major in literature. While there, she adopted the pseudonym "Banana", after her love of banana flowers, a name she recognizes as both "cute" and "purposefully androgynous."

In November 1987, Yoshimoto won the 6th Kaien Newcomer Writers Prize for her debut work "Kitchen". In January 1988, she also won the 16th Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature, for the novella "Moonlight Shadow", which is included in most editions of "Kitchen". Outside Japan, she has been awarded prizes in Italy such as the Scanno Literary Prize in 1993, the Fendissime Literary Prize in 1996, the Literary Prize Maschera d'Argento in 1999, and the Capri Award in 2011.

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