Karl Taro Greenfeld (born 1965) is a journalist, novelist and television writer known primarily for his articles on life in modern Asia and both his fiction and non-fiction in The Paris Review .
Born in Kobe, Japan, to a Japanese mother and a Jewish-American father, the writers Fumiko Kometani and Josh Greenfeld. [1] Greenfeld grew up in Los Angeles and went to college in New York City, graduating from Sarah Lawrence in 1987. [1] He served as an Assistant Language Teacher on the JET Programme in Japan from 1988 to 1989. [2] A regular contributor to publications such as GQ , The Atlantic and Vogue , Greenfeld was the managing editor of Tokyo Journal before becoming the editor of Time Asia from 2002–2004 and editor-at-large at Sports Illustrated from 2004–2007. [3] He was the Tokyo correspondent for The Nation. [4] He is the author of three books about Asia: Speed Tribes: Days and Nights with Japan's Next Generation and Standard Deviations: Growing Up and Coming Down in the New Asia , and an account of the breakout of the SARS virus, China Syndrome: The True Story of the 21st Century's First Great Epidemic. [5]
Greenfeld was greatly influenced by his parents, especially his father. In an interview, he said, "My dad was a huge influence in terms of what I think about writing, what has to be in a story, what has to be in a book. He's still a huge influence. When I wrote something well, he would make me feel really good. When I wrote something bad, he made me feel terrible. As a kid, it was most of my highs and lows—to the point that if the writing was really good, it almost excused weeks of bad behavior. He would forgive any transgression if I wrote a good story." [6] His younger brother Noah was the subject of the elder Greenfeld's "Noah" trilogy of books (A Child Called Noah, A Place for Noah, and A Client Called Noah); these books also indirectly chronicle Greenfeld's childhood. In May 2009, Greenfeld published his own memoir of his years with Noah, Boy Alone: A Brother's Memoir. [7]
His short stories have won the Pushcart Prize (2021), the Alice Hoffman Prize (2012) and O. Henry Prize (2012) and appeared in Best American Short Stories (2009 and 2013). [8] [9]
His novel Triburbia, about a group of families living in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan, was published by Harper in July 2012. His novel The Subprimes about a woman who may or may not be the messiah, and the band of impoverished homeless Americans she comes to lead, was published by Harper in May 2015.
He has written for the Showtime drama Ray Donovan, the Netflix live action remake of Cowboy Bebop, and the HBO Max series Tokyo Vice. [7] [10] He is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and a Knight-Bagehott Fellow of Columbia University. [11] [12]
His short stories have appeared in the Pushcart Prize, O. Henry Awards, and Best American Short Stories anthologies.
Lewis Henry Lapham II was an American writer. He was the editor of the American monthly Harper's Magazine from 1976 until 1981, and from 1983 until 2006. He was the founder of Lapham's Quarterly, a publication about history and literature, and wrote numerous books on politics and current affairs.
Zyzzyva is a triannual magazine of writers and artists. It places an emphasis on showcasing emerging voices and never before published writers in addition to the already established. Based in San Francisco, it began publishing in 1985. ZYZZYVA's slogan is "The Last Word," referring to "zyzzyva", the last word in the American Heritage Dictionary. A zyzzyva is an American weevil. The accent is on the first syllable.
Bōsōzoku is a Japanese youth subculture associated with customized motorcycles. The first appearance of these types of biker gangs was in the 1950s. Popularity climbed throughout the 1980s, peaking at an estimated 42,510 members in 1982. Their numbers dropped dramatically in the 2000s, with fewer than 7,297 members in 2012. Later, in 2020, a Bōsōzoku rally that used to attract thousands of members only had 53 members, with police stating that it was a long time since they had to round up that many people.
Don Lee is an American novelist, fiction writer, literary journal editor, and creative writing professor.
Josh Greenfeld was an American author and screenwriter mostly known for his screenplay for the 1974 film Harry and Tonto along with Paul Mazursky, which earned them an Academy Award nomination and its star, Art Carney, the Oscar itself for Best Actor. Greenfeld also wrote Oh, God! Book II and the TV special Lovey and is the author of several books about his autistic son, Noah Greenfeld.
Fumiko Kometani is a Japanese author and artist (painter) and a longtime resident of the United States. Kometani moved to the US in 1960 when she was working as an abstract painter, spending time at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire where she met her husband, Josh Greenfeld. She changed her focus to writing when her developmentally disabled son Noah became too hard to handle when he was around the art supplies in her studio. Her older son, Karl Taro Greenfeld, is also a writer.
Speed Tribes: Days and Nights with Japan's Next Generation is a 1994 anthology book by Karl Taro Greenfeld. A collection of nonfiction short stories about the decadence and disaffection of urban Japanese Gen X youth during the early 1990s in the last years of the Bubble Economy, Speed Tribes was widely reviewed in international media.
David Means is an American short story writer and novelist based in Nyack, New York. His stories have appeared in many publications, including Esquire, The New Yorker, and Harper's. They are frequently set in the Midwest or the Rust Belt, or along the Hudson River in New York.
David Wojahn is a contemporary American poet who teaches poetry in the Department of English at Virginia Commonwealth University, and in the low residency MFA in Writing program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. He has been the director of Virginia Commonwealth University's Creative Writing Program.
Ron Carlson is an American novelist, short story writer and professor.
Zoku (族) is a Sino-Japanese term meaning tribe, clan, or family. As a suffix it has been used extensively within Japan to define subcultural phenomena, though many zoku do not acquire the suffix.
Tokyo Journal is an English-language quarterly magazine about Tokyo and Japan, which was established in 1981.
Robert Anthony Siegel is an American writer and professor. He is the author of two novels and numerous short stories and essays, and has been recognized with O. Henry and Pushcart Prizes among other awards. He is currently an instructor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington's Creative Writing Department.
Salvatore Scibona is an American novelist. He has won awards for both his novels and short stories, and was selected in 2010 as one of The New Yorker's "20 under 40" Fiction Writers to Watch. His work has been published in ten languages. In 2021 he was awarded the $200,000 Mildred and Harold Strauss Living award from the American Academy of Arts and Letter for his novel The Volunteer. In its citation the Academy wrote, "Salvatore Scibona’s work is grand, tragic, epic. His novel The Volunteer, about war, masculinity, abandonment, and grimly executed grace, is an intricate masterpiece of plot, scene, and troubled character. In language both meticulous and extravagant, Scibona brings to the American novel a mythic fury, a fresh greatness."
American Short Fiction is a nationally circulated literary magazine founded in 1991 and based in Austin, Texas. Issued triannually, American Short Fiction publishes short fiction, novel excerpts, an occasional novella, and strives to publish work by both established and emerging contemporary authors. The magazine seeks out stories "that dive into the wreck, that stretch the reader between recognition and surprise, that conjure a particular world with delicate expertise—stories that take a different way home."
Duane Niatum (McGinniss) is a Native American poet, author and playwright from the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe in the northern Olympic Peninsula of the state of Washington. Niatum's work draws inspiration from all aspects of life ranging from nature, art, Native American history and humans rights. Niatum is often cited as belonging to the second wave of what critic Kenneth Lincoln has termed the Native American Renaissance.
Clancy Martin is a Canadian philosopher, novelist, and essayist. His interests focus on 19th century philosophy, existentialism, moral psychology, philosophy and literature, ethics & behavioral health, applied and professional ethics and philosophy of mind.
Yannick Murphy is an American novelist and short story writer. She is a recipient of the Whiting Award, National Endowment for the Arts award, Chesterfield Screenwriting award, MacDowell Colony fellowship, and the Laurence L. & Thomas Winship/PEN New England Award.
Yutaka Mukaiyama is a Japanese pornographic actor and a former professional wrestler better known as Chocoball Mukai.
Tenmyouya Hisashi is a Japanese contemporary artist.