Katie Kitamura (born 1979) is an American novelist, journalist, and art critic. She is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the London Consortium.[2]
Early life and education
Katie Kitamura was born in Sacramento, California[3] in 1979 to a family of Japanese origin,[4] and raised in Davis, where her father Ryuichi was a professor at UC Davis Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.[2][5][6]
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.
