Hiromi Goto (born December 31, 1966

Chiba-ken is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to the ...

, Japan) is a Japanese-Canadian writer, editor, and instructor of creative writing.

Life

Goto was born in Chiba'ken,

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 ...

in 1966 and immigrated to Canada with her family in 1969. They lived on the west coast of

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

for eight years before moving to Nanton,

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, a small town in the foothills of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

where her father farmed mushrooms. Goto earned her B.A. in English from the

University of Calgary The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...

in 1989, where she received creative writing instruction from Aritha Van Herk and

Fred Wah Frederick James Wah, OC, (born January 23, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, scholar and former Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate. Life Wah was born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, but grew up in the interior (West Kootenay) of British Columbi ...

. Goto's grandmother told her Japanese stories when she was growing up. Her work is also influenced by her father's life stories in Japan. These stories often featured ghosts and folk creatures such as the

kappa Kappa (uppercase Κ, lowercase κ or cursive ; el, κάππα, ''káppa'') is the 10th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless velar plosive sound in Ancient and Modern Greek. In the system of Greek numerals, has a value o ...

— a small creature with a frog's body, a turtle's shell and a bowl-shaped head that holds water. Her writing commonly explores the themes of race, gender and cultural experiences, like eating, while moving between the realms of fantasy, horror and reality. Her first novel, ''Chorus of Mushrooms'', was the 1995 recipient of the

Commonwealth Writers' Prize Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...

Best First Book Canada and Caribbean Region' and the co-winner of the Canada-Japan Book Award. It has been released in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, Italy, and the United Kingdom. In 2001, she was awarded the James Tiptree, Jr. Award and was short-listed for the regional Commonwealth Writer's Prize, Best Book Award, the Sunburst Award and the Spectrum Award. ''Chorus of Mushrooms'' is about three generations of Japanese women in Canada, searching for identity in the midst of alienation and an often-hostile host country. The novel explores these characters' diverse, conflicting perspectives towards assimilation into the majority culture, and through the seamless blending of memory, history, and myth, develops a powerful conversation about what it means to belong. Goto speaks to a diasporic experience, on cultural conflicts held on stages from food to hygiene to language, and to the price paid for denying one's origins. Goto has been the Writer-in-Residence for numerous institutions, including

Athabasca University Athabasca University (AU) is a Canadian public research university that primarily operates through online distance education. Founded in 1970, it is one of four comprehensive academic and research universities in Alberta, and was the first ...

(2012-2013), the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...

(2009-2010), Simon Fraser University (2008),

Vancouver Public Library Vancouver Public Library (VPL) is the public library system for the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. In 2013, VPL had more than 6.9 million visits with patrons borrowing nearly 9.5 million items including: books, ebooks, CDs, DVDs, video game ...

(2007) and Vancouver's Emily Carr University of Art and Design. She was the co- Guest of Honor of the 2014

WisCon WisCon or Wiscon, a Wisconsin science fiction convention, is the oldest, and often called the world's leading, feminist science fiction convention and conference. It was first held in Madison, Wisconsin in February 1977, after a group of fans att ...

science fiction convention in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

. where she gave a well-received speech on her experiences as a writer. Goto's graphic novel ''Shadow Life'' was selected as the Simon Fraser University Library's One Book One SFU choice in 2022.

Bibliography

*''The Skin on Our Tongues.'' Calgary: Absinthe, 1993. (co-editor) *''Chorus of Mushrooms.'' Edmonton: NeWest, 1994. *''The Water of Possibility.'' Regina: Coteau, 2001. *'' The Kappa Child''. Red Deer, AB: Red Deer, 2001. *''Hopeful Monsters.'' Vancouver:

Arsenal Pulp Press Arsenal Pulp Press is a Canadian independent book publishing company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company publishes a broad range of titles in both fiction and non-fiction, focusing primarily on underrepresented genres such as und ...

, 2004. *''Half World.'' Puffin Canada, 2009. *''Darkest Light.'' Puffin Canada, 2012. *''Shadow Life''. Raincoast, 2021. ISBN 978-1-62672-356-6

References

External links

*
Goto
at English-Canadian writers,

, with links, e.g.''Words Like Buckshot: Taking Aim at Notions of Nation in Hiromi Goto's "Chorus of Mushrooms",'' by Mari Sasano. Published in Open Letter in 1998 {{DEFAULTSORT:Goto, Hiromi 1966 births Living people Canadian science fiction writers People from Chiba Prefecture Japanese emigrants to Canada Writers from Vancouver Canadian women novelists Canadian writers of Asian descent Women science fiction and fantasy writers Canadian lesbian writers Canadian LGBT novelists 20th-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian women writers 20th-century Canadian women writers

Life

Bibliography

References

Further reading

External links