Marie Mutsuki Mockett

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Marie Mutsuki Mockett is an American novelist and memoirist.

Contents

Life

Mockett was born to a Japanese mother and an American father and grew up speaking English, German and Japanese. Her mother's family owns a Buddhist temple in Tohoku Japan, 25 miles from the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power reactor. [1] Her father's family owns a wheat farm in Nebraska. [2] Mockett graduated from the Robert Louis Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, California [3] and Columbia University in 1992. [4] Her novel, Picking Bones from Ash, was published in 2009 and short listed for the Paterson Prize.

An Op Ed published in the New York Times about the effects of the 2011 Great East Earthquake in Japan [5] ultimately led to the publication of Mockett's memoir, Where the Dead Pause and the Japanese Say Goodbye, which was shortlisted for the PEN Open Award, [6] the Northern California Book Award [7] and was the Barnes a Noble Discover Pick. [8] American Harvest, her third book, follows her travels through the American heartland in the company of evangelical harvesters and examines the rural and urban divide and won the 2020 Northern California Book Award for General Nonfiction. [9] Calling on her own biracial, bicultural identity, Mockett strove to see the "other" in a divided America. [10]

In 2022, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to live and conduct research in Japan at Waseda University in Tokyo. [11] Her most recent book, a novel titled "The Tree Doctor," was published by Graywolf Press in 2024 to critical acclaim. [12] This contemporary post-pandemic novel was a most-anticipated book according to the Washington Post [13] and Oprah [14] and features a coming of middle age heroine who reinvents herself, through an affair with a mysterious arborist, against the backdrop of the Japanese classic "The Tale of Genji." Mockett's essays have appeared in Elle , [15] The New York Times , [16] and Salon. [17] She has taught at Saint Mary's College MFA, [18] the Rainier Writing Workshop [19] and is currently on the faculty of the Bennington Writing Seminars. [20] With Kiese Laymon, she is also a series editor of the new nonfiction imprint, Great Circle Books, published by UNC Press. [21]

Works

Fiction

Nonfiction

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References

  1. ↑ "After Father's Death, A Writer Learns How 'The Japanese Say Goodbye'". NPR.org.
  2. ↑ "Marie Mutskui Mockett: American Harvest".
  3. ↑ "Stevenson School Alumni Magazine Spring/Summer 2015". 16 June 2015.
  4. ↑ "Bookshelf". Columbia College Today. Fall 2020. Retrieved September 23, 2020.
  5. ↑ Mockett, Marie Mutsuki (15 March 2011). "Opinion | Memories, Washed Away". The New York Times.
  6. ↑ "2016 PEN Open Book Award". 6 November 2015.
  7. ↑ "Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye". www.wwnorton.co.uk.
  8. ↑ "Discover".
  9. ↑ "Poetry Flash > programs".
  10. ↑ "A Review of: American Harvest: God, Country, and Farming in the Heartland, by Marie Mutsuki Mockett".
  11. ↑ "List of Grantees".
  12. ↑ "THE TREE DOCTOR | Kirkus Reviews".
  13. ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/interactive/2024/new-year-means-new-books-well-help-you-create-your-reading-list/
  14. ↑ "The Tree Doctor | Graywolf Press".
  15. ↑ Mockett, Marie Mutsuki (2020-05-08). "The Sacred Ritual of Meals with My Mother". Elle. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
  16. ↑ Mockett, Marie Mutsuki (15 March 2011). "Opinion | Memories, Washed Away". The New York Times.
  17. ↑ "Marie Mutsuki Mockett's Articles at Salon.com". www.salon.com.
  18. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/smcmfa/photos/a.790353140984083/3649160385103330/?type=3&paipv=0&eav=AfYUKUX7O77l-6-cEQ9i8Gy-eB_TToegcXOGFaCwZIeJQlaCCOfrEI2UaXoqRqdfzTE&_rdr
  19. ↑ "Marie Matskui Mockett". 25 August 2022.
  20. ↑ "Marie Mutsuki Mockett and Claire Vaye Watkins - Thu, 01/04/2024 | Bennington College".
  21. ↑ "Great Circle Books".
  22. ↑ "Everyone's baking bread at home now, and America's wheat doesn't harvest itself". Salon. 2020-04-30. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
  23. ↑ "Briefly Noted Book Reviews". The New Yorker. 29 April 2020. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
  24. ↑ Canfield, Kevin (April 2, 2020). "Review: In 'American Harvest,' Marie Mutsuki Mockett ruminates on race, faith and food". Datebook. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
  25. ↑ Farwell, Eric (2020-04-07). "Marie Mutsuki Mockett with Eric Farwell". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
  26. ↑ "Traveling with the Evangelicals who feed America". Los Angeles Times. 2020-04-03. Retrieved 2020-05-24.

Michael Schaub, "'The Tree Doctor' chronicles one woman's response to a series of life-changing crises," NPR, March 19, 2024. Retrieved September 13, 2024.

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