Marie Mutsuki Mockett
Marie Mutsuki Mockett was born to an American father and Japanese mother. Her memoir, “Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye,” was a finalist for the 2016 PEN Open Book Award. American Harvest: God, Country and Farming in the Heartland (Graywolf) explores Mockett’s experience across “the divide,” and is a tribute to the complicated and nuanced history of the United States and its people.
Biography
Marie was born and raised in California to a Japanese mother and an American father, and graduated from Columbia University with a degree in East Asian Languages and Civilizations. Her newest book, American Harvest: God, Country and Farming in the Heartland from Graywolf Press, follows her journey through seven red agricultural states in the company of evangelical Christian harvesters, and was a finalist for the Lukas Prize, awarded by Columbia and Harvard University’s Schools of Journalism. She is also the author of a novel, Picking Bones from Ash, and a memoir, Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye, which was a finalist for the PEN Open Book Award. Other writing appears in The New York Times, Elle, Glamour, National Geographic, Salon, Agni and Ploughshares. Marie received her MFA from the Bennington Writers Seminars, and is a Visiting Writer in the MFA program Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, California. She lives in San Francisco.