Otsuka julie biography

We stopped wanting. See all Julie Otsuka's quotes ». The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods. Murder Road by Simone St. The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka. Sign in to vote ». Topics Mentioning This Author.

Otsuka julie biography

Welcome back. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. The Buddha in the Attic 3. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars. The Swimmers 3. Want to Read saving… Error rating book. When the Emperor Was Divine 3. Diem Perdidi 4. Actually, I think I did have a style without realizing it.

I remember my sculpture teacher—he really liked my work and I think he could see, even from the way I sculpted the bone, how I would do the figures, which I went on to do. He could just tell. I would say my style was kind of pared down, which is kind of the way my writing is. I would not say it was a pared-down style. I was interested in color and some of the abstract expressionist painters from the s.

It was a completely different world from the world of figurative sculpture. So yeah. I never really arrived at a style. I was just learning and looking. BLVR: After college you tried to pursue painting in a more serious way—to become a professional painter? I think there was something holding me back psychologically from being the painter I wanted to be.

I know I had a gift for color. I know I had a good eye and a good hand. I just became very self- conscious at a certain point and it really made it difficult to go on. I was never able to quite work that out. Self-consciousness, too, can be a real inhibitor for writers. JO: It can be really paralyzing. With sculpture, early on, it was clear that I was very good.

It was just something I loved, loved, loved doing. I began writing because it was something I just enjoyed doing. I never, ever thought, when I took my first writing classes, that I would end up being a professional or even a published writer. I was doing it because I liked it. I had a greater ease with language than I did with paint.

It came more easily to me. It was a fallback, you know? BLVR: Exactly. I think if you aspire to be a certain kind of artist and you believe the gap between your abilities and your models is too large, maybe it intimidates as opposed to encourages. JO: Right. But especially for students, the gap is always going to be huge in the beginning.

It takes years to learn your craft. Easy for me to say, right? I think you also have to be in love with language. BLVR: For sure. Like you, I think being in love with language is essential to writing a certain kind of book. JO: Yes. And you also have to be able to be alone. There are many, many months, years, decades, with yourself, in your head.

BLVR: I want to address what you said about it taking ten years before you published anything. I think this comes from literary professionals who want to capitalize on art, but also from an eager reading public. When I was on book tour in , I kept being asked—and this will undoubtedly sound familiar to you—what I was working on next. How do you see the relationship between art and speed?

JO: [ Laughs ] I think a book takes as long as it takes. With my books, especially for my first two novels, I did a ton of historical research. I had to know everything about what I was writing about, not before I began to write—I would often research as I was writing—but I was constantly absorbing all this data and keeping notebooks and notebooks filled with facts.

Many of us writers are perfectionists. But my pace is slow. I realized I was a lot more productive at home, which surprised me. I was like, Oh, I can work even harder if I stay home! JO: Yeah. I wrote the last chapter of The Swimmers in the first year of the pandemic, which for me is super-fast. I mean, I could spend a couple of years writing a chapter.

It puts the fire under me. There have been no deadlines for my novels, so I just take as long as I need to take, but I would like to speed it up a little. It could be a voice that I heard that gets me started and I follow it. ISSN Seattle: University of Washington Press. Julie Otsuka: Secrecy and Anger. Retrieved — via YouTube. The Believer.

Publishers Weekly. Asia Society. Retrieved June 16, Awards Archive. Langum Sr. The Langum Charitable Trust. Archived from the original on June 30, Shelf Awareness. September 28, November 6, Retrieved November 6, Archived from the original on 2 July Retrieved December 17, Asian American war stories: trauma and healing in contemporary Asian American literature.

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