Naomi Hirahara ( ja, 平原 直美, born 1962) is an American writer and journalist. She edited the largest Japanese-American daily newspaper, ''
The Rafu Shimpo'' for several years. She is currently a writer of both fiction and non-fiction works and the
Edgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...
-winning Mas Arai mystery series.
Biography
Naomi Hirahara was born in 1962 in
Pasadena, California
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district.
I ...
to Japanese parents, both of whom were survivors of the
Hiroshima bombing
The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the on ...
.
She began writing when she was in elementary school in
Altadena
Altadena () ("Alta", Spanish for "Upper", and "dena" from Pasadena) is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in the Verdugo Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, approximately 14 miles (23 km) from the downtown ...
, California.
She received her bachelor's degree from
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
in international relations
with a focus on Africa and spent a summer during her studies volunteering with the
YWCA
The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries.
The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...
in
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
, West Africa. After her 1983 graduation,
she furthered her education at the
Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies
The , or IUC, is a Japanese language school located in the Minato Mirai area of Yokohama, Japan. Operated by a consortium of universities, the IUC provides advanced-level instruction to both undergraduate and graduate students and is considered ...
in Tokyo.
After a brief job as an editorial assistant, Hirahara began working at the ''Rafu Shimpo'' newspaper in 1984 as writer about the city of Los Angeles. Three years later, she began working at a boutique public relations firm to allow more time for creative writing and taking classes at the
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
extension. After three years, she was asked to come back as an editor
at the ''Rafu Shimpo'' and began writing nonfiction books in the 1990s.
In 1996, Hirahara quit her job, took a fellowship for creative writing
with the Milton Center at
Newman University in
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...
and committed to working full-time as a creative writer.
In 2001, she published a non-fiction work, ''Green Makers: Japanese American Gardeners in Southern California'' and later that year published ''An American Son: The Story of George Aratani, Founder of Mikasa and Kenwood''. In 2002, ''Distinguished Asian American Business Leaders'' was released.
She sold her first fiction book, ''Summer of the Big Bachi'' in 2003,
which received positive reviews in the ''Chicago Tribune'',
and later that same year was named by them as one of the "10 best mysteries and thrillers of 2004".
It was also selected by ''
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 ...
'' as a "Best Books of 2004".
The book turned out to be the first of a series about an ageing Japanese-American gardener, Mas Arai, a survivor of the atomic bomb, but the character was American-born. Though he has a degree, prejudice keeps him from other work, and he becomes a gardener, mirroring Hirahara's father's experience. Mas Arai became the featured character in ''Gasa Gasa Girl'', ''Snakeskin Shamishen'', ''Blood Hina''
and ''Strawberry Yellow''.
(Strawberry Yellow takes place in
Watsonville
Watsonville is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, located in the Monterey Bay Area of the Central Coast of California. The population was 52,590 according to the 2020 census. Predominantly Latino and Democratic, Watsonville is a self- ...
, Ca and at the
Redman Hirahara Farmstead.) In 2007, the third book in her series, ''Snakeskin Shamishen'' won the
Edgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...
from the Mystery Writers of America.
The following year, the series began being released in Japan.
In 2014, Hirahara began a new series, though Mas Arai's story has at least two more chapters. The new series features a young bicycle policewoman, Ellie Rush, who is the central character in Hirahara's seventh novel, ''Murder on Bamboo Lane''. While the Arai series focuses on California centered around the
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 ...
generation, the Rush series is contemporary and expands on Hirahara's desire to speak from a woman's point of view. Her first book in which the main character was a woman was a juvenile fiction work, ''1001 Cranes'', published in 2008.
Her most recent book in the Ellie Rush series, ''Grave on Grand Avenue'' (2015) has received positive reviews,
and has been featured as a "Best Book" by Publishers Weekly.
Selected works
Mas Arai series
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Ellie Rush series
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Leilani Santiago series
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Other fiction
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*''South Central noir'',
Akashic Books
Akashic Books is a Brooklyn-based independent publisher. Akashic Books' collection began with Arthur Nersesian's ''The Fuck Up'' in 1997, and has since expanded to include Dennis Cooper's "Little House on the Bowery" series, Chris Abani's Black ...
2022.
Non-fiction
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*Hirahara Naomi and Illi Ferandez. ''We Are Here : 30 Inspiring Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Who Have Shaped the United States''. First ed.
Running Press Kids 2022.
References
External links
LARB Radio Hour featuring Naomi Hirahara, ''Critical Theory, and Literary Hub'' Released: May 28 2015*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirahara, Naomi
1962 births
Living people
American writers of Japanese descent
Stanford University alumni
American women journalists
American women journalists of Asian descent
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women writers
American women novelists
American novelists of Asian descent
21st-century American novelists
American mystery writers
Women mystery writers
Writers from Pasadena, California
American crime fiction writers
Women crime fiction writers
Journalists from California
Edgar Award winners
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American women writers of Asian descent
20th-century American journalists