by Julie Otsuka

Author photograph by © Daryl N. Long.

Julie Otsuka was born in 1962 and raised in California. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale University, where she received her B.A. in art, and for several years she pursued a career as a painter before later turning to writing.

Although When the Emperor Was Divine is a novel, Otsuka's family did share some of the overall experiences of the novel's characters. Her grandfather was arrested by the FBI the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, and her mother, uncle, and grandmother were sent to an internment camp several months later. They remained in a camp in Topaz, Utah, for three and a half years.

Her fiction has been anthologized in Scribner's Best of the Fiction Workshops 1998 and Otsuka's first novel, When the Emperor Was Divine was published in the US by Alfred Knopf in September `02.

When the Emperor Was Divine was longlisted for the Orange Prize ('03) in England, and was a finalist for the Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers Award" contest ('03). It was also the winner of the Asian American Literary Award ('03) and is a regular "City Reads" selection around the US.

Otsuka lives in New York City and is currently at work on her second novel. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship 2004.