Katie Kitamura

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.[9]

Kitamura was introduced to mixed martial arts in Japan by her brother.[10] 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.[7] 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.[11]

Kitamura's novel A Separation will be adapted for a film starring Katherine Waterston.[12]

Kitamura writes for The Guardian, The New York Times, and Wired.[2] She has written articles on mixed martial arts,[13] film criticism and analysis,[14] and art.[15][16]

In 2010, Kitamura's The Longshot was shortlisted for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award.[17]

• Japanese for Travellers: A Journey. Hamish Hamilton. 2006. ISBN 978-0-241-14289-9.
• The Longshot: A Novel. Free Press. August 11, 2009. ISBN 978-1-4391-1760-6.
• Gone to the Forest. Profile Books. February 14, 2013. ISBN 978-1-84765-907-1.
• A Separation. Penguin Random House. February 7, 2017. ISBN 978-0-3995-7612-6.

• Art criticism in Frieze magazine.[18]
• Art criticism in Contemporary Magazine[19]