Katie Kitamura

Katie Kitamura is an American novelist, journalist and art critic. She is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the London Consortium.

Katie Kitamura was born in California in 1979 to a family of Japanese origin, and raised in California.

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

Earlier in her life, Kitamura trained as a ballerina.

Non-fiction

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.

Fiction

Kitamura was introduced to mixed martial arts in Japan by her brother. Her first novel, The Longshot, published in 2009, is about the preparations undergone by a fighter and his trainer ahead of championship bout against a famed opponent. The cover art of the US edition of her book features the title tattooed on knuckles; the knuckles are her brother's.

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 in a backdrop of civil strife and political change.

Journalism

Kitamura writes for The Guardian, The New York Times, and Wired. She has written articles on mixed martial arts, film criticism and analysis, and art.

Awards and recognition

In 2010, Kitamura's The Longshot was shortlisted for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award.

Books

1. Japanese for Travellers: A Journey. Hamish Hamilton. 2006. ISBN 978-0-241-14289-9. 
2. The Longshot: A Novel. Free Press. August 11, 2009. ISBN 978-1-4391-1760-6. 
3. Gone to the Forest. Profile Books. February 14, 2013. ISBN 978-1-84765-907-1. 

Journalism

1. Art criticism in Frieze magazine.
2. Art criticism in Contemporary Magazine

• "Articles by Katie Kitamura". Frieze Magazine. Retrieved December 8, 2013. 
• "Contemporary magazine". Contemporary Magazine. Retrieved May 12, 2014. 

Kitamura is married to the author Hari Kunzru.