Naomi Hirahara
Hirahara in 2011
Hirahara in 2011
Born1962 (age 60–61)
Pasadena, California, U.S.
OccupationAuthor, journalist
Alma materStanford University,
Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies
GenreMystery fiction, non-fiction
Years active1990s–present
Notable awardsEdgar Award
Website
naomihirahara.com

Naomi Hirahara (Japanese: 平原 直美, born 1962) is an American writer and journalist. She edited the largest Japanese-American daily newspaper, The Rafu Shimpo for several years. She is currently a writer of both fiction and non-fiction works and the Edgar Award-winning Mas Arai mystery series.

Biography

Naomi Hirahara was born in 1962 in Pasadena, California[1] to Japanese parents, both of whom were survivors of the Hiroshima bombing. She began writing when she was in elementary school in Altadena, California.[2] She received her bachelor's degree from Stanford University in international relations[3] with a focus on Africa and spent a summer during her studies volunteering with the YWCA in Ghana, West Africa. After her 1983 graduation,[2] she furthered her education at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Tokyo.[3]

After a brief job as an editorial assistant, Hirahara began working at the Rafu Shimpo newspaper in 1984 as writer about the city of Los Angeles. Three years later, she began working at a boutique public relations firm to allow more time for creative writing and taking classes at the UCLA extension. After three years, she was asked to come back as an editor[2] at the Rafu Shimpo and began writing nonfiction books in the 1990s.[1] In 1996, Hirahara quit her job, took a fellowship for creative writing[2] with the Milton Center at Newman University in Wichita, Kansas[4] and committed to working full-time as a creative writer.[2] In 2001, she published a non-fiction work, Green Makers: Japanese American Gardeners in Southern California and later that year published An American Son: The Story of George Aratani, Founder of Mikasa and Kenwood. In 2002, Distinguished Asian American Business Leaders was released.[4]

She sold her first fiction book, Summer of the Big Bachi in 2003,[2] which received positive reviews in the Chicago Tribune,[5] and later that same year was named by them as one of the "10 best mysteries and thrillers of 2004".[6] It was also selected by Publishers Weekly as a "Best Books of 2004".[7] The book turned out to be the first of a series about an ageing Japanese-American gardener, Mas Arai, a survivor of the atomic bomb, but the character was American-born. Though he has a degree, prejudice keeps him from other work, and he becomes a gardener, mirroring Hirahara's father's experience. Mas Arai became the featured character in Gasa Gasa Girl, Snakeskin Shamishen, Blood Hina[8] and Strawberry Yellow.[9] (Strawberry Yellow takes place in Watsonville, Ca and at the Redman Hirahara Farmstead.) In 2007, the third book in her series, Snakeskin Shamishen won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.[10] The following year, the series began being released in Japan.[8]

In 2014, Hirahara began a new series, though Mas Arai's story has at least two more chapters. The new series features a young bicycle policewoman, Ellie Rush, who is the central character in Hirahara's seventh novel, Murder on Bamboo Lane. While the Arai series focuses on California centered around the World War II generation, the Rush series is contemporary and expands on Hirahara's desire to speak from a woman's point of view. Her first book in which the main character was a woman was a juvenile fiction work, 1001 Cranes, published in 2008.[1] Her most recent book in the Ellie Rush series, Grave on Grand Avenue (2015) has received positive reviews,[11] and has been featured as a "Best Book" by Publishers Weekly.[12]

Selected works

Mas Arai series

  • Summer of the Big Bachi. Random House Publishing Group. 2004. ISBN 978-0-440-33489-7.
  • Gasa-Gasa Girl. Random House Publishing Group. 2005. ISBN 978-0-440-33532-0.
  • Snakeskin Shamisen. Random House Publishing Group. 2006. ISBN 978-0-440-33589-4.
  • Blood Hina. Altadena, California: Prospect Park Books. 2010. ISBN 978-1-938849-19-0.
  • Strawberry yellow. Altadena, California: Prospect Park Books. 2013. ISBN 978-1-938849-02-2.
  • Sayonara slam. Altadena, California: Prospect Park Books. 2016. ISBN 978-1-938849-73-2.
  • Hiroshima boy. Altadena, California: Prospect Park Books. 2018. ISBN 978-1-945551-09-3.

Ellie Rush series

Leilani Santiago series

A Japantown Mystery series

  • Clark and Division. Soho Crime. 2021. ISBN 978-1641292498.
  • Evergreen. Soho Crime. 2023. ISBN 9781641293594.[13]

Other fiction

Non-fiction

References

  1. 1 2 3 Ulin, David L. (April 16, 2014). "Naomi Hirahara on her new mystery series ... and the new L.A." LA Times. Los Angeles, California. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hong, Courtney (August 30, 2014). "Naomi Hirahara: A Japanese American's universal story". San Diego, California: Savor Good. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  3. 1 2 "Naomi Hirahara". New York, New York: Penguin Books. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  4. 1 2 "Naomi Hirahara". Los Angeles, California: Gersh Books. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  5. ↑ Adler, Dick (April 18, 2004). "Mysterious happenings, from Spain to S. Carolina". Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  6. ↑ Adler, Dick (December 19, 2004). "Despite the season, cops and robbers take no holiday". Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Summer of the Big Bachi". PW Best Books. Publishers Weekly. March 29, 2004. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  8. 1 2 Bates, Karen Grigsby (August 12, 2010). "Mas Arai: An Unlikely Hero Solves L.A.'s Mysteries". Los Angeles, California: NPR. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  9. ↑ Asakawa, Gil (March 19, 2013). "Naomi Hirahara, Author of Mas Arai Mystery Novels, Comes to Denver for a Reading". Denver, Colorado: Huffington Post. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  10. ↑ Roderick, Kevin (April 26, 2007). "Edgar for Naomi Hirahara". Los Angeles, California: LA Observed. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  11. ↑ "Ellie Rush Returns in 'Grave on Grand Avenue'". Los Angeles, California: The Rafu Shimpo. April 3, 2015. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Grave on Grand Avenue". PW Best Books. Publishers Weekly. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  13. ↑ Powers, John (August 15, 2023). "This 'Evergreen' LA noir novel imagines the post-WWII reality of Japanese Americans". NPR. Retrieved September 20, 2023.
  14. ↑ South Central noir. Gary Phillips. Brooklyn, New York. 2022. ISBN 978-1-63614-054-4. OCLC 1313905518.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  15. ↑ Woods, Paula (2022-09-07). "How the authors of 'South Central Noir' captured South L.A. and created a genre". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2022-09-21.
  16. ↑ Hirahara, Naomi (2022). We are here : 30 inspiring Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who have shaped the United States. Illi Ferandez (1st ed.). Philadelphia. ISBN 978-0-7624-7965-8. OCLC 1284917938.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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