Joanna Bator (born 1968) is a novelist, journalist and university lecturer. Her first publication was an academic work entitled Feminism, Postmodernism, Psychoanalysis (2001). A year later her first novel appeared, A Woman. However, it was only her third book, The Japanese Fan (2004), that brought her wide acclaim, a collection of essay-style reportage resulting from a two-year stay in Japan. It is an original work, which won the Beata Pawlak prize among others, and has become a classic guide to Japanese culture and customs.
 
After a few years’ silence Bator showed a completely new side to her writing by publishing a two-part novel, comprised of Sandy Hill (2009) and Cloudalia (2010). The novel is set in the town where she was born, and covers several decades, from the Second World War to the present. Bator's undoubted talent for the epic was confirmed by nominations for two prestigious awards, the NIKE and the Gdynia, both for Sandy Hill.