Diane M. Asitimbay (pronounced (/ə see´tim bai/)) is an American author, poet, teacher and intercultural trainer.

Personal life

Asitimbay was born on January 26, 1958, and grew up in metropolitan Detroit. Asitimbay's mother was an

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

teacher and her father was a government employee. Asitimbay has been writing poetry and stories since elementary school. She published her first poem when she was in high school for Pencil Marks, the school's

literary magazine A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letter ...

. Throughout college, she continued to publish articles, essays, and poems for literary magazines and newspapers. After graduating in international relations from

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

, she moved to New York City. Before writing her first book, she worked at many jobs, including a copy editor for a legal book publisher, a Spanish

court interpreter Interpreting is a translational activity in which one produces a first and final target-language output on the basis of a one-time exposure to an expression in a source language. The most common two modes of interpreting are simultaneous interp ...

, a political reporter in Mexico for a daily newspaper, and a history teacher in a New York City public high school. Asitimbay currently lives in San Diego, where she is an adjunct instructor in the English Language Institute at University of California, San Diego Extension.

Books

Asitimbay's first book on American behavior called "What's Up, America?" (2005), was selected as a finalist for the Fresh Voices Award and the author was praised by reviewers and called "a powerful and important emerging

cultural commentator A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole. Cultural criticism has significant overlap with social and cultural theory. While such criticism is simply part of the self-consciousness of the culture, the social positions o ...

." Following the book's publication, Asitimbay appeared on

Fox Tv The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...

on the morning " FOX & FRIENDS" show and on KPBS public radio on the "These Days" show. A second and expanded edition of "What's Up, America?" was released in 2009. This was followed by Asitimbay's second book, a humorous poetry collection for children called "No Perfect People Please!" (2007), which was Silver Recipient for Juvenile Poetry and received an honorable mention by the London Book Festival.

Themes

Asitimbay writes about American behavior and culture, drawing upon her many years of teaching international students as a basis for identifying characteristics unique to the United States. She analyzes American cultural quirks, from the magnets on our

refrigerator A refrigerator, colloquially fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump (mechanical, electronic or chemical) that transfers heat from its inside to its external environment so th ...

s to the

bumper sticker A bumper sticker is an adhesive label or sticker with a message, intended to be attached to the bumper of an automobile and to be read by the occupants of other vehicles—although they are often stuck onto other objects. Most bumper stickers are ...

s on our

car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...

s and then compares American habits to Korean,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese, and European customs and describes how cultural practices differ in many parts of the world. Asitimbay often speaks about the need for Americans to become global citizens and advocates developing genuine relationships with people from other cultures. Her insights have been found useful to a wide array of international organizations and universities including the U.S. Department of State’s Fulbright scholars, the San Diego Consular Corp, the Citizen’s Diplomacy Council, and National Association of Foreign Student Advisors.(NAFSA), California Association of Teachers of the English Language (CATESOL) and the University of California, Irvine. Asitimbay also examines a wide variety of personalities and experiences from a child's point of view as depicted in her second book. She performs her poetry in local

s in an effort to promote literacy and participates in literary events such as "

Read Across America The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest labor union in the United States. It represents public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college stude ...

" held every March.

Bibliography

Non-Fiction * What’s Up America? A Foreigner’s Guide to Understanding Americans. (2005) Second Edition (2009) **Fresh Voices” Award, Travel Guide Finalist, Writer's Marketing Association **2010 San Diego Boo
Awards
- Travel Books Finalist Poetry * No Perfect People, Please! (Culturelink Press, November 2007) **Honorable Mention for Children's Books, London Book Festival 2007Honorable Mention for Children's Books, London Book Festival 2007
/ref> *Silver Award Mom's Choice Awards 2009 Fiction *My Life as a Cactus, Tales of a Rookie Reporter 2023 *2017-1018, San Diego Book Awards Finalist - Fiction - Novel

External links

Official website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asitimbay, Diane Living people American children's writers 1958 births Writers from Detroit Michigan State University alumni American women children's writers 21st-century American women