omg hiiiii!!! sorry i just saw this now!!! i went to a language school (i’ll happily send all the info abt it in dm if you would like ^^)! i think you’d be fine starting from scratch in most schools (though you should inquire and make sure,, don’t take my word for it), in my school they made everyone take an evaluative test on the first day and then sorted us in the right class for our needs/skill level!! there were plenty of people starting from zero (hiragana and katakana/my name is etc) so don’t worry about it too much (though i would recommend learning at least hiragana and katakana beforehand), in general my school was very flexible and would move students up/down a level at the end of each week (if it was needed ofc), for example i was placed in pre-intermediate on my first week and then they promptly moved me up when they noticed i had it too easy/it was covering things i was already familiar with, so i’d make sure to look for schools with this method!! a friend of mine went to a school in kyoto where the levels were much more rigid and she ended up not learning a lot bc it wasn’t the right fit for her!

CLARICE LISPECTOR OOMF !!!! I HOPE YOU KNOW YOU UNLEASHED A MONSTER WITH THIS QUESTION TT
i’ll stick to the contemporaries bc if i were to delve into classics we’d be here forever SO!!!
carmen maria machado (who wrote my all time favorite book) and fumiko enchi (who wrote my other favorite book)! then christa wolf, annie ernaux, ursula k le guin (mainly for her essays and lavinia), im also absolutely obsessed with mariana enríquez’s mind (though i always find her short stories very hit or miss), lastly italo calvino is my great love i wouldn’t be nini without italo calvino!! AH also honorable mentions to ann carson and billy-rae belcourt !! these are all the ones that came to me off the top of my head? i also read a lot of fantasy but idk if i’d consider any of the authors my favorites!! WBY???