Cynthia Kadohata

{{Short description|Japanese-American children's writer (born 1956)}}

{{infobox writer

| name = Cynthia Kadohata

| image = Cynthia Kadohata.JPG

| imagesize = 225px

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| caption = Kadohata in 2014-2015

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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1956|07|02}}

| birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

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| occupation = Writer

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| education = University of Southern California (BA)

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| genre = Children's and Young-adult literature

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| notableworks = {{plainlist|

Kira-Kira
Weedflower
The Thing About Luck

}}

| awards = {{awd |Whiting Award

|1991}} {{awd |Newbery Medal |2005}} {{awd |PEN USA |2006 }} {{awd |National Book Award |2013}}

| spouse(s) =

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| children = Sammy

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| website = {{url|www.cynthiakadohata.com}}

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Cynthia Kadohata (born July 2, 1956) is a Japanese American children's writer best known for her young adult novel Kira-Kira which won the Newbery Medal in 2005. She won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2013 for The Thing About Luck.

Biography

Kadohata was born in Chicago, Illinois. Her first published short story appeared in The New Yorker in 1986. She received a BA in journalism from the University of Southern California in 1979.{{cite web |title=Cynthia Kadohata '79 |url=https://alumni.usc.edu/cynthia-kadohata-79/ |website=University of Southern California |access-date=22 February 2023}} She also attended graduate programs at the University of Pittsburgh and Columbia University.

Kadohata started her writing career with short story submissions to magazines. Her first publication, titled Charlie O., was published in 1986 in The New Yorker.{{cite magazine |last1=Kadohata |first1=Cynthia |title=Charlie O. |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1986/10/20/charlie-o |magazine=The New Yorker |date=13 October 1986 |access-date=22 February 2023}} Later stories were published in The Pennsylvania Review, Grand Street, and Ploughshares.{{cite web |title=Cynthia Kadohata at Worldcat |url=https://worldcat.org/search?q=kadohata%2C+cynthia&author=Kadohata%2C+Cynthia&quickLink=artchap&itemType=artchap&itemSubType=artchap-artcl%2Cartchap-chptr%2Cartchap-digital |website=worldcat.org |access-date=22 February 2023}}

Weedflower, her second children's book, was published in Spring 2006. It is about the Poston internment camp where her father was imprisoned during World War II. Her third children's novel, Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam about the Vietnam War from a war dog's perspective, was published in January 2007 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Outside Beauty, another children's novel, was published in 2008. It is about a 13-year-old girl and her three sisters, all fathered by different men and what happens when she and her sisters are separated from each other after their mother gets into an accident.

At least two of Kadohata's books touch on the topic of chick sexing. The family of the main character in her first novel, 1989's The Floating World, and also the family of the protagonist in 2004's Kira-Kira are employed at chicken hatcheries separating male chicks from female.{{cite web |last1=van Harmelen |first1=Jonathan |title=Chick sexing |url=https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Chick%20sexing |website=Densho Encyclopedia |publisher=Densho |access-date=22 February 2023}} Kadohata's inspiration was her own personal experience. Her father was a chick sexer during her childhood.{{cite web |title=Cynthia Kadohata |url=https://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm/author_number/1090/cynthia-kadohata |website=BookBrowse |access-date=22 February 2023}}

As of January 2021, Kadohata lived in Los Angeles with her boyfriend, son, and dogs.{{cite web |title=About |url=https://www.cynthiakadohata.com/about/ |website=Cynthia Kadohata|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301152453/https://www.cynthiakadohata.com/about/ |archive-date=2021-03-01 }}

==Novels==

The Floating World (Viking, 1989){{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/30/books/books-of-the-times-growing-up-rootless-in-an-immigrant-family.html|title=Books of The Times; Growing Up Rootless in an Immigrant Family|last=Kakutani|first=Michiko|date=1989-06-30|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-06-14}}
In the Heart of the Valley of Love (Viking, 1992)
The Glass Mountains (Clarkston, GA, White Wolf Pub, 1995), illus. Terese Nielson and Larry S. Friedman{{worldcat |oclc=035518156}}. Retrieved 2013-11-22.
Kira-Kira (Atheneum, 2004)

:: Newbery Medal

:: Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature - Youth Literature{{cite web |title=2005-2006 Awards Winners |url=http://www.apalaweb.org/awards/literature-awards/winners/2005-2006-awardswinners/ |website=APALA |accessdate=1 February 2019}}

Weedflower (Atheneum, 2006)

:: PEN USA Award

Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam (Atheneum, 2007)

:: California Young Reader Medal, 2011[http://www.californiayoungreadermedal.org/booklist_middle_school.htm "Booklist – Middle School / Junior High"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203000947/http://www.californiayoungreadermedal.org/booklist_middle_school.htm |date=2013-12-03 }}. California Young Reader Medal. Retrieved 2013-11-22.

:: North Carolina Children's Book Award, Ohio Buckeye Children's Book Award, Nebraska Golden Sower, Kansas William Allen White Children's Book Award, South Carolina Junior Book Award

Outside Beauty (Atheneum, 2008)
A Million Shades of Gray (Atheneum, 2010)
The Thing About Luck (Atheneum, 2013), illustrated by Julia Kuo{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/books/review/the-favorite-daughter-and-the-thing-about-luck.html|title='The Favorite Daughter' and 'The Thing About Luck'|last=Goddu|first=Krystyna Poray|date=2013-06-14|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-06-14}}

:: National Book Award for Young People's Literature

:: Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature - Youth Literature{{cite web |title=2013-2014 AWARDS WINNERS |url=http://www.apalaweb.org/awards/literature-awards/winners/2013-2014-awardswinners/ |website=APALA |accessdate=1 February 2019}}

Half a World Away (Atheneum, 2014){{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/books/review/kinda-like-brothers-and-half-a-world-away.html?_r=0 |title=Sunday Book Review: 'Half a World Away' by Cynthia Kadohata |work=New York Times |date=17 Oct 2014 |accessdate=14 May 2015 |author=RITA WILLIAMS-GARCIA}}
Checked (Atheneum, 2018)
A Place to Belong (Atheneum, 2019)
Vape (Caitlyn Dlouhy, 2023){{cite web |last1=Maughan |first1=Shannon |title=Spring 2023 Children's Sneak Previews |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/89902-spring-2023-children-s-sneak-previews.html |website=Publishers Weekly |publisher=PWxyz |access-date=22 February 2023}}

Short stories

Charlie O., (The New Yorker, October 12, 1986){{cite magazine |last1=Kadohata |first1=Cynthia |title=Charlie O. |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1986/10/20/charlie-o |magazine=The New Yorker |date=13 October 1986 |access-date=22 February 2023}}
Seven Moons, (Grand Street vol 7 no 4, 1988){{cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25007134|jstor=25007134 |title=Seven Moons |last1=Kadohata |first1=Cynthia |journal=Grand Street |year=1988 |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=73–80 |doi=10.2307/25007134 }}
Breece D'J Pancake, (Mississippi Review vol 18 no 1, 1989){{cite journal |last1=Kadohata |first1=Cynthia |title=Breece D'J Pancake |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20134237 |journal=Mississippi Review |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=35–61 |date=1989 |jstor=20134237 }}
Gray Girl, (Ploughshares 25, December, 1, 1999){{cite web |title=Winter 1999-00 |url=https://www.pshares.org/issues/winter-1999-00 |website=Ploushares at Emerson College |access-date=22 February 2023}}

References

{{Reflist |25em |refs=

{{isfdb name|2855}} (ISFDB). Retrieved 2013-11-22.

[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-2013#.UmViA6xXHw8 "2013 National Book Awards"]. National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2013-11-22. With short interviews of winners and finalists.

[http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberyhonors/newberymedal "Newbery Medal and Honor Books, 1922–Present"]. Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). American Library Association (ALA).

[http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/aboutnewbery/aboutnewbery "The John Newbery Medal"]. ALSC. ALA. Retrieved 2013-11-22.

}}

Staff (September 2007) "Cynthia Kadohata 1956– " Biography Today 15(3) pp. 38–49

External links

{{official website |www.cynthiakadohata.com/ }}
[http://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/cynthia-kadohata#/ Profile at The Whiting Foundation]
:de:Amerikanische Kinder- und Jugendliteratur
{{LCAuth|n88107455|Cynthia Kadohata|11|}}

Category:1956 births

Category:Living people

Category:Writers from Chicago

Category:American children's writers

Category:American writers of Japanese descent

Category:Newbery Medal winners

Category:National Book Award for Young People's Literature winners

Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:20th-century American women writers

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:American women children's writers