Julie Otsuka is an American author.

Biography

Otsuka was born in 1962, in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

. Her father worked as an

aerospace engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

and her mother worked as a lab technician before she gave birth to Otsuka. Both of her parents were of Japanese descent, with her father being an

issei is a Japanese-language term used by ethnic Japanese in countries in North America and South America to specify the Japanese people who were the first generation to immigrate there. are born in Japan; their children born in the new country are ...

and her mother being a

nisei is a Japanese-language term used in countries in North America and South America to specify the ethnically Japanese children born in the new country to Japanese-born immigrants (who are called ). The are considered the second generation, ...

. When she was nine, her family moved to

Palos Verdes The Palos Verdes Peninsula (''Palos Verdes'', Spanish for "Green Sticks") is a landform and a geographic sub-region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, within southwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. Located in the Sou ...

, California. She has two brothers, one of whom,

Michael Otsuka Michael H. Otsuka (born 1964) is an American left-libertarian political philosopher and Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Rutgers University. Career Otsuka earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree in politics from Balliol College, Oxf ...

, teaches at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

. After graduating from high school, Otsuka attended

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, graduating with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in 1984. She later graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

with a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

in 1999. Her debut novel '' When the Emperor was Divine'' dealt with

Japanese American internment Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It was published in 2002 by

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

. Her second novel, ''

The Buddha in the Attic ''The Buddha in the Attic'' is a 2011 novel written by American author Julie Otsuka about Japanese picture brides immigrating to America in the early 1900s. It is Otsuka's second novel. The novel was published in the United States in August 2011 ...

'' (2011), is about Japanese

picture bride The term picture bride refers to the practice in the early 20th century of immigrant workers (chiefly Japanese, Okinawan, and Korean) in Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States and Canada, as well as Brazil selecting brides from their nat ...

s. Otsuka's

historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...

novels deal with Japanese Americans. Her books call attention to the plight of Japanese Americans during

. Although she did not live through the Japanese internment period, her mother, uncle, and two grandparents did, which gives Otsuka a personal perspective on the matter. '' When the Emperor was Divine'' was the first novel where she portrays Japanese internment camps. With a background as a painter, Otsuka's attention to detail and descriptions employ vivid imagery of situations. She is a recipient of the

Albatros Literaturpreis Albatros Literaturpreis (or Internationaler Literaturpreis Albatros) was an international literary award given every two years by the based in Bremen, Germany. It was awarded only five times. The award was for contemporary authors in prose, poetry ...

. Otsuka lives in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Awards and honors

In 2004, Otsuka received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

. In 2011, her novel ''The Buddha in the Attic'' was a

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

and

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

bestseller. In 2022, ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

'' named her novel ''The Swimmers'' one of the top ten works of fiction published that year.

Works

* * (2013 England: ) * "Diem Perdidi" (2011) is a short story that follows the scattered memories of the protagonist's mother as her mother's dementia progresses.Otsuka, Julie. "Diem Perdidi". ''Granta Magazine'', vol. 117. October 27, 2011. *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Otsuka, Julie 1962 births Living people Writers from Palo Alto, California American writers of Japanese descent Yale University alumni Columbia University School of the Arts alumni 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers Prix Femina Étranger winners PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners American women novelists American novelists of Asian descent American women writers of Asian descent People from Palos Verdes, California American historical novelists