Modern Japanese Writers
PL Ref: PL723 .M563 2001
Provides essays on 23 modern Japanese writers and one on A-Bomb writers (includes 4 living authors and 4 women). Each essay focuses on one writer's life and work, giving necessary background and explaining the writer's significance in wider context. At the end of each essay, there is a list of the author's works in translation (both short stories and longer pieces) and in Japanese, films based on the author's work, critical studies and biographical studies. The entries are written by scholars in the field, some established and a few new ones, and reflect their deep personal engagement with the material; they write of works based on their readings of the original Japanese texts.

Shintei sakka, shōsetsuka jinmei jiten
新訂作家小説家人名事典
EA Ref: PL723 .S325 2002 

Nihon kindai bungaku daijiten
日本近代文学大辞典 6v.
EA Ref: PL726.55 .N4854 1977

Nihon gendai bungaku daijiten
Sakuin hen; jinmei, jikō-hen, 2 vols
現代日本文学大事典, 作品篇, 人名・事項篇
EA Ref: PL726.55 .N477 1994  
A dictionary of Japanese literature from Meiji through Shōwa. The sakuin-hen volume includes 3,394 works arranged in gojuon-order by title. Includes an index to fictional names and a list of novels made into plays or movies. The Jinmei, Jikō-hen volume has a dictionary of personal names and one of literary terms.

Kindai sensō bungaku jiten
近代戦争文学事典, 5 v.
EA Ref: PL726.57.W3 Y366 1992

Nihon gendai shōsetsu daijiten
日本現代小説大事典 
EA Ref:  PL747.55 .N54 2004

A Guide to Reading of Titles of Modern Japanese Literature
近代文学難読作品名辞典
EA Ref: PL726.55 .K563 1998 

Nihon jidō bungaku daijiten
日本児童文学大事典, 3 vols.
EA Ref: PZ49.2 .N486 1993 
Covers 100 years of children's literature from 1885 to 1984.

Gendai josei bungaku jiten, tsuketari gendai josei bungaku ryakunenpyō
現代女性文学辞典
EA Ref: PL725 .G46 1990  
Includes a brief survey of trends in modern women's literature, and then discusses women writers from Meiji to the present individually. Includes living authors. Entries range from a paragraph to several pages for someone like Yosano Akiko. Includes a chronology and an index of women authors in gojuon order.