Kanako Nishi is a Japanese writer and artist born on May 7, 1977 in Tehran, Iran. Her family relocated to Japan when she was two years old, and later moved to Cairo, Egypt when she was seven, where they stayed for four years before returning to Japan to settle in Izumi, Osaka. She attended Kansai University in Osaka, where she studied law.

At the age of twenty-six, Nishi moved to Tokyo to pursue a career as a professional writer. Her first book, a short story collection titled Aoi (Blue), was published in 2004. She has since published more than twenty books, including novels, essay collections, short story collections, and illustrated children's books.

Nishi has received several major literary awards. In 2006, she won the Oda Sakunosuke Prize for her novel Tsūtenkaku (Tower to Heaven). In 2012, she won the inaugural Kawai Hayao Literary Prize for her novel Fukuwarai (Funny Face). In 2015, she won the prestigious Naoki Prize for her bestselling novel Saraba! (Farewell!), which drew heavily on her childhood experiences in Iran and Egypt for its portrayal of a male protagonist navigating life between multiple countries.

Several of Nishi's novels have been adapted into films, including live-action and animated works. The 2013 film Kiiroi Zou (Yellow Elephant) was based on her 2006 novel of the same name. The 2014 film Entaku: Kokko, Hitonatsu no Imagine (Round Table) adapted her 2011 novel Entaku. Her 2016 novel Makuko was adapted into a film in 2019, and her 2005 novel Sakura was adapted into a film in 2020.

The 2021 animated film Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko, directed by Ayumu Watanabe and produced by Studio 4°C, is based on Nishi's 2011 novel Gyokō no Nikuko-chan. The story follows a brash single mother named Nikuko and her pensive daughter Kikuko as they navigate life in a harbor town. The film was featured at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2021.

Nishi's writing style is characterized by her use of the Osaka dialect, known as Osaka-ben, which is common in the region where she grew up. She often writes words in hiragana rather than kanji to allow for multiple interpretations and for aesthetic effect. Her English translator has described her writing as deceptively simple yet beautiful, noting that it establishes an immediate intimacy with her characters. Her work addresses themes of religion, individualism, and society.

In addition to her writing, Nishi is also a visual artist who has designed her own book covers despite having no formal training in art. In 2017, her visual artworks were exhibited for the first time at the Ai Kowada Gallery in Tokyo. She created works for this exhibition including a graffiti-inspired piece based on her novel i, drawn with pastels on used cardboard.