Tawada, Yoko: - Yoko Tawada (b. 1960) is an exophonic writer: a non-native speaker of German who writes prose, poetry and dramatic texts in her adopted language. She also writes in her mother tongue, Japanese. Tawada has been living in Germany since 1982 and learned the German language as an adult. Her signature short prose texts are part essay, part short story, and blur the boundaries between autobiography and fiction.