Ayase Maru was born in Chiba in 1986. She graduated with a degree in literature from Sophia University in Tokyo. She worked at a company before winning the R-18 women’s literature readers’ prize in 2010. Her book Finally Reaching the Sea contains “Black night, counting the stars: Escaping from the train after the 3/11 earthquake,” which is a record of her experiences during the Tohoku disaster.