Before a packed house on February 2 at mam’s books in Seattle Chinatown, I was honored to help launch Criminals, the debut novel by Ben Masaoka of Seattle of a postwar Japanese American family that was published after his recent death.
Continue reading “Criminals,” a novel in the spirit of John Okada
Category Archives: “John Okada:” the book
Asserting our history and defending civil liberties in 2025
On this date we’re in a strange transitional phase, preparing to defend democracy and civil liberties, books and libraries, history and knowledge and education, as they all come under concerted and coordinated attack in the four years to come. The example and literature of Japanese American resistance to wartime incarceration is more relevant than ever, and the script will continue to be written and rewritten to confront events as they unfold. Without question, we will look back at this time of relative peace and grace with nostalgia and a degree of anger at how we got here. However, we press forward, and here’s what’s on tap for the first half of 2025.
Continue reading Asserting our history and defending civil liberties in 2025
John Okada’s college year in Nebraska recalled at opening of historic Japanese Hall
John Okada spent only three weeks with his family at the WRA camp in Minidoka, Idaho, before he was granted indefinite leave through the National Student Relocation Council to attend Scottsbluff Junior College in Nebraska. His year at Scottsbluff is now being recalled as part of a new display at today’s grand opening of the Japanese Hall and History Project at the Legacy of the Plains Museum in Gering, Nebraska.
Continue reading John Okada’s college year in Nebraska recalled at opening of historic Japanese Hall
Okada graffiti preserved at historic Nippon Kan Theater
The Okada signature survives! When I first came to Seattle in 1977, poet and playwright Garrett Hongo brought me backstage to the empty Nippon Kan Theater to show me a wall of graffiti with the name of a juvenile John Okada, painstaking inked into the stone. It was like touching a piece of history. Continue reading Okada graffiti preserved at historic Nippon Kan Theater
Mystery writers honor John Okada at Left Coast Crime convention
In addition to the presentation of awards for best new mysteries, the writers and fans at the annual Left Coast Crime convention. also recognize a “Ghost of Honor,” someone who is no longer with us who inspires them. For their 2024 Seattle Shakedown convention in Bellevue, the writers and fans recognized novelist John Okada in his centennial year as their Ghost of Honor. Continue reading Mystery writers honor John Okada at Left Coast Crime convention
Evoking the Postwar Seattle Chinatown of John Okada
THERE ARE STORES on King Street, which is one block to the south of Jackson Street. Over the stores are hotels housed in ugly structures of brick more black than red with age and neglect. Continue reading Evoking the Postwar Seattle Chinatown of John Okada
From Page to Stage: Adapting NO-NO BOY for Today’s Theater
Many thanks to Seattle Rep Literary Manager and Dramaturg Paul Adolphsen for so expertly leading the October 24 panel on our work to adapt John Okada’s No-No Boy for the theater. This was the second in the series of panels I’ve been curating for the Seattle Public Library on the occasion of the John Okada Centennial.
Continue reading From Page to Stage: Adapting NO-NO BOY for Today’s Theater
Full house for kickoff of the John Okada Centennial
John Okada never received the recognition he deserved in his lifetime. Since then, his work has earned him a place in world literature. I’d like to think Okada would have been pleased to see the turnout in his hometown on the occasion of his 100th birthday and the kickoff of the John Okada Centennial celebration.
Continue reading Full house for kickoff of the John Okada Centennial
New adaptation of “NO-NO BOY” workshopped at Seattle Rep
One-hundred years ago today, John Okada was born in Seattle. It’s also a day on which I can finally reveal that I’m developing the script for a new theater adaption of Okada’s landmark novel, No-No Boy.
For four days this week I’ve had the privilege of working with the Seattle Rep, our flagship regional theater, under the auspices of “The Other Season,” its New Plays series. The Rep hired the brilliant theater director Desdemona Chiang to work with me and a talented cast of professional Equity actors. Under union rules we were not allowed to advertise or talk about the workshop until it was over. Continue reading New adaptation of “NO-NO BOY” workshopped at Seattle Rep
The Seattle Public Library celebrates the John Okada Centennial
Novelist John Okada would have been 100 years old had he lived to September 22, 2023. To celebrate his legacy and honor his work in writing the great Japanese American novel, The Seattle Public Library has engaged me to curate a series of programs around the John Okada Centennial.
Continue reading The Seattle Public Library celebrates the John Okada Centennial