Synopses & Reviews
In Turning Japanese, MariNaomi seeks the language for the first time through employment at an illegal Japanese hostess bar. Her goal is to speak directly to her grandparents in Fukuoka with no translator to edit or censor, but a stark lesson in culture and a whirlwind engagement to a young man are not at all what she expected as a young feminist.
To celebrate the publication of this memoir, MariNaomi is offering a personalized avatar drawn in the style of her Said While Talking pieces to one winner chosen at random from those who enter on Foreword Literary's website.
Synopsis
MariNaomi's newest graphic novel tours the mid-90's US and Japanese illegal hostess bar scene and her own personal cultural awakening.
"The best comic about being Asian American in Japan. Like Fun Home and Persepolis, Turning Japanese is at once modest and grand. MariNaomi is a master of the small, intimate moments that build to a surprisingly emotional climax."--Jason Shiga, Ignatz and Eisner Award-winner
"In Turning Japanese, Mari's unflinching honesty, open heart, and hard-earned wisdom challenges us to embrace the unexpected detours that unfold in our own lives."--Yumi Sakugawa, author of Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe
In 1995, twenty-two-year-old Mari had just exited a long-term relationship, moving from Mill Valley to San Jose, California. Soon enough, she falls in love, then finds employment at a hostess bar for Japanese expats, where she is determined to learn the Japanese language and culture. Turning Japanese is a story about otherness, culture clashes, generation gaps, and youthful impetuosity.
MariNaomi is the author and illustrator of the SPACE Prize-winning graphic memoir Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22 (Harper Perennial, 2011), the Eisner-nominated Dragon's Breath and Other True Stories (2dcloud/Uncivilized Books, 2014), and her self-published Estrus Comics (1998 to 2009). Her work has appeared in over sixty print anthologies, and has been featured on such websites as the Rumpus, the Weeklings, Los Angeles Review of Books, Midnight Breakfast, Truthout, XOJane, Buzzfeed, Bitch Media, and more. Mari's work on the Rumpus won a SPACE Prize and an honorable mention in Houghton Mifflin's Best American Comics 2013.
About the Author
MariNaomi’s work has appeared in such publications as Eisner nominated No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, I Saw You: Comics Inspired by Real Life Missed Connections, Cheers to Muses: Contemporary Works by Asian American Women, Action Girl Comics, The Big Feminist But, and many others. She is a regular contributor to TheRumpus.net, SFBay.CA, and Tapastic.
Mari has been exhibiting her artwork since 2002 and has done live painting performances in such venues as the De Young Museum and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. She has performed many visual readings of her comics, including an international tour with Sister Spit, and has appeared on HGTV's That's Clever. She is slated to be a guest teacher at the California College of the Arts MFA in Comics program in July of 2013.