Katie Kitamura

Last updated

Katie Kitamura
Carolyn Kellogg, Katie Kitamura, and Rachel Kushner at LA Book Fest 2025 02 (cropped).jpg
Kitamura in 2025
Born1979 (age 4546)
Sacramento, California, U.S.
LanguageEnglish
Education Princeton University
London Consortium (PhD)
Notable worksThe Longshot
Spouse Hari Kunzru
Children2 [1]

Katie Kitamura (born 1979) is an American novelist, journalist, and art critic. As of April 2025, she was teaching creative writing at New York University.

Contents

Early life and education

Katie Kitamura was born in Sacramento, California, United States, [2] in 1979, to a family of Japanese origin, [3] and she was raised in Davis, where her father Ryuichi was a professor at UC Davis Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. [4] [5] [6]

Kitamura graduated from Princeton University in New Jersey in 1999. She earned a PhD in American literature from the London Consortium. [7] Her thesis was titled The Aesthetics of Vulgarity and the Modern American Novel (2005). [8]

Earlier in her life, Kitamura trained as a ballerina. [9] [10]

Career

Kitamura wrote Japanese for Travellers: A Journey, describing her travels across Japan and examining the dichotomies of its society and her own place in it as a Japanese-American. [11]

Kitamura was introduced to mixed martial arts in Japan by her brother. [12] Her first novel, The Longshot, published in 2009, is about the preparation undertaken by a fighter and his trainer ahead of a championship bout against a famous opponent. The cover art of the US edition of her book features the title tattooed on knuckles; the knuckles are her brother's. [9] Kitamura's second novel, Gone to the Forest, published in 2013, is set in an unnamed colonial country and describes the life and suffering of a landowning family against a backdrop of civil strife and political change. [13]

Kitamura's 2017 novel A Separation will be adapted for a film starring Katherine Waterston. [14] Her novel Intimacies appeared in 2021.

Kitamura writes for The Guardian , The New York Times , and Wired . [4] She has written articles on mixed martial arts, [15] film criticism and analysis, [16] and art. [17] [18]

Awards and recognition

In 2010, Kitamura's The Longshot was shortlisted for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award. [19] In 2013, her Gone to the Forest was also shortlisted for the Young Lions Fiction Award. In 2021, Kitamura's Intimacies was longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction. [20] In 2025 Kitamura was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, [21] and her novel Audition was longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize. [22]

Selected bibliography

Autobiography

Novels

Journalism

Personal life

Kitamura is married to author Hari Kunzru. [25]

References

  1. "Kunzru-Kitamura children". Archived from the original on April 22, 2019. Retrieved November 13, 2017.
  2. Yu, Brandon (July 12, 2021). "Katie Kitamura and the Cognitive Dissonance of Being Alive Right Now". New York Times. p. C1. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved October 25, 2021.
  3. Womack, Philip (January 11, 2013). "Five young novelists for 2013". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved December 8, 2013.
  4. 1 2 "Katie Kitamura". Conville & Walsh literary agency. Archived from the original on December 6, 2016. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
  5. "Katie Kitamura: Japanese for Travellers - Hamish Hamilton books". Archived from the original on January 7, 2014. Retrieved January 6, 2014.
  6. "Tributes & Biography: The Life and Contributions of Ryuichi Kitamura". ITS. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
  7. Leese, Samantha Kuok (August 10, 2012). "Katie Kitamura interview". Spectator. Archived from the original on December 19, 2013. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
  8. "PhD Titles". The London Consortium. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
  9. 1 2 Doig, Will (August 19, 2009). "How to Fight Like a Girl". The Daily Beast. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
  10. "Katie Kitamura interviews at Simon & Schuster". Archived from the original on December 15, 2013. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
  11. Campbell, Sophie (August 30, 2006). "Japan through American eyes". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
  12. Greenwood, Katherine Federici (November 18, 2009). "In the ring". Princeton Alumni Weekly. 111 (5). Retrieved December 8, 2013.[ permanent dead link ]
  13. Hall, Sarah (February 6, 2013). "Gone to the Forest by Katie Kitamura – review". The Guardian. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
  14. Hipes, Patrick (February 1, 2017). "Katherine Waterston To Star In Movie Adaptation Of Upcoming Novel 'A Separation'". Deadline. Retrieved February 1, 2017.
  15. Kitamura, Katie (April 29, 2006). "The harder they come". The Guardian. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
  16. Kitamura, Katie (June 15, 2012). "With Grain: A Q&A with Apichatpong Weerasethakul". Asian American Writers' Workshop. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
  17. Kitamura, Katie (January 19, 2009). "Little London Prop Shop Turns Ideas Into Art". Wired. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
  18. Kitamura, Katie (August 2008). "Liam Gillick". Frieze Magazine (114). Archived from the original on December 15, 2013. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
  19. "Provocateurs, Mind Bogglers, and Tragedians: Five Young Literary Talents Chosen as Finalists for The New York Public Library's 2010 Young Lions Fiction Award" (Press release). New York Public Library . Retrieved December 8, 2013.
  20. "The 2021 National Book Awards Longlist: Fiction". The New Yorker . September 17, 2021.
  21. "Announcing the 2025 Guggenheim Fellows". Guggenheim Fellowship. Guggenheim Foundation. Retrieved June 27, 2025.
  22. Creamer, Ella (July 29, 2025). "Most global Booker prize longlist in a decade features Kiran Desai and Tash Aw". The Guardian .
  23. "Articles by Katie Kitamura". Frieze Magazine. Archived from the original on December 15, 2013. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
  24. "Contemporary magazine". Contemporary Magazine. Archived from the original on August 1, 2008. Retrieved May 12, 2014.
  25. Lee, Jonathan (September 3, 2013). "Bare-Knuckle Writing". Guernica. Retrieved December 8, 2013.