Karen Tei Yamashita ( ja, 山下てい ; born January 8, 1951) is a Japanese-American writer.

Early life

Yamashita was born on January 8, 1951, in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

Career

Yamashita is Professor of Literature at the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge of ...

, where she teaches creative writing and Asian American literature. Her works, several of which contain elements of magic realism, include novels ''I Hotel'' (2010), ''Circle K Cycles'' (2001), ''

Tropic of Orange ''Tropic of Orange'' is a novel set in Los Angeles and Mexico with a diverse, multi-ethnic cast of characters by Karen Tei Yamashita. Published in 1997, the novel is generally considered a work of magic realism but can also be considered science ...

'' (1997), ''Brazil-Maru'' (1992), and '' Through the Arc of the Rain Forest'' (1990). Yamashita's novels emphasize the necessity of polyglot, multicultural communities in an increasingly globalized age, even as they destabilize orthodox notions of borders and national/ethnic identity. She has also written a number of plays, including ''Hannah Kusoh,'' ''Noh Bozos'' and ''O-Men'' which was produced by the

Asian American theatre Asian American theatre is theatre written, directed or acted by Asian Americans. From initial efforts by four theatre companies in the 1960s, Asian-American theatre has grown to around forty groups today. Early productions often had Asian themes ...

group,

East West Players East West Players is an Asian American theatre organization in Los Angeles, founded in 1965. As the nation's first professional Asian American theatre organization, East West Players continues to produce works and educational programs that give v ...

Awards

In 2009, Yamashita received the Chancellor’s Award for Diversity from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She was a finalist for the 2010

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

. In 2011 she was named a Fellow of

United States Artists United States Artists (USA) is a national arts funding organization based in Chicago. USA is dedicated to supporting living artists and cultural practitioners across the United States by granting unrestricted awards. Mission The organization' ...

. In 2013 she was co-appointed with

Bettina Aptheker Bettina Fay Aptheker (born September 13, 1944) is an American political activist, radical feminist, professor and author. Aptheker was active in civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s and 1970s, and has since worked in developing femini ...

as the UC Presidential Chair in Feminist Critical Race and Ethnic Studies; a position offered to distinguished members of the university's faculty intended to encourage new or interdisciplinary program development. Yamashita was named the recipient of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2021.

Selected writings

* '' Through the Arc of the Rain Forest''. (

Coffee House Press Coffee House Press is a nonprofit independent press based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The press’s goal is to "produce books that celebrate imagination, innovation in the craft of writing, and the many authentic voices of the American experience ...

, 1990). * ''Brazil-Maru''. (Coffee House Press, 1992). * ''

''. (Coffee House Press, 1997). * ''Circle K Cycles''. (Coffee House Press, 2001). *
I Hotel
'. (Coffee House Press, 2010). * ''Anime Wong: Fictions of Performance'', edited with an afterword by Stephen Hong Sohn. (Coffee House Press, 2014). * ''Letters to Memory''. (Coffee House Press, 2017). * ''Sansei and Sensibility: Stories''. (Coffee House Press, 2020).

References

External links

* * * *: Includes a list of critical work on the author and additional biographical details * *
Karen Tei Yamashita Papers
MS 465. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz. Retrieved 23 April 2020. {{DEFAULTSORT:Yamashita, Karen Tei American writers of Japanese descent 1951 births Living people American dramatists and playwrights of Japanese descent Writers from Oakland, California American women dramatists and playwrights American novelists of Asian descent American women writers of Asian descent American women novelists 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century Japanese women writers 20th-century Japanese writers Carleton College alumni American Book Award winners National Book Award winners 21st-century American women