Marie Mutsuki Mockett

Marie Mutsuki Mockett was born to an American father and Japanese mother, and graduated from Columbia University with a degree in East Asian Languages and Civilizations. Her new book, American Harvest: God, Country and Farming in the Heartland, follows her journey through seven red agricultural states in the company of evangelical Christian harvesters, and examines the changing role of food, God, science, and race in society.

Mockett’s previous book, Where the Dead Pause and the Japanese Say Goodbye, examines grief against the backdrop of the 2011 Great East Earthquake, and Mockett’s family temple located twenty-five miles from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power reactor. A 2011 Op Ed in The New York Times about 3.11, led to featured participation in the internationally televised NHK Documentary, “Venerating the Departed.” Mockett’s awards include a Fellowship from the US/Japan Creative Artist Fellowship, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Where the Dead Pause and the Japanese Say Goodbye was a finalist for the 2016 PEN Open Book Award, the Indies Choice for Nonfiction and the Northern California Book Award for Creative Nonfiction and other honors. Her novel, Picking Bones from Ash, was a finalist for the Saroyan Prize and the Paterson Prize. Additional work appears in the New York Times, National Geographic, Elle, Glamour, Ploughshares, Agni, and other publications. She received her MFA from Bennington Writing Seminars and lives in San Francisco. Mockett is part of the core faculty of the Rainier Writing Workshop in Tacoma, Washington, and a visiting professor at Saint Mary’s MFA program in Moraga, California.

Books by Marie Mutsuki Mockett
American Harvest: God, Country, and Farming in the Heartland