Karen Tei Yamashita

Karen Tei Yamashita is the author of seven books (including I Hotel, finalist for the National Book Award, and most recently Sansei and Sensibility), all published by Coffee House Press. Recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation, the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, and a United States Artists’ Ford Foundation Fellowship, she is professor emerita of literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

2021 Medalist for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
2018 Winner of the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature
2010 National Book Award Finalist for I Hotel
2011 American Book Award Winner for I Hotel
2010 California Book Award Winner for I Hotel
Book cover featuring a pink, blue, and white gradient image of a man about to take the break shot at the beginning of a pool game from the perspective of the opposite side of the table

I Hotel is arguably the best book published on Asian American literary history.”

The International Examiner
Book cover featuring a pink, blue, and white gradient image of a man about to take the break shot at the beginning of a pool game from the perspective of the opposite side of the table

"Yamashita questions the wisdom of generations and the meaning of inheritance in these bold stories that transcend race, place, and time.”

Esquire on Sansei and Sensibility
Book cover featuring a pink, blue, and white gradient image of a man about to take the break shot at the beginning of a pool game from the perspective of the opposite side of the table

“The range of characters, sparkling humor, connective themes, and creative ambition all showcase Yamashita’s impressive powers.”

—Publishers Weekly, starred review of I Hotel
Book cover featuring a pink, blue, and white gradient image of a man about to take the break shot at the beginning of a pool game from the perspective of the opposite side of the table

Books by Karen Tei Yamashita