10 Facts About Naomi Hirahara

Naomi Hirahara is an American mystery writer and journalist.

Naomi Hirahara edited the largest Japanese-American daily newspaper, Rafu Shimpo, for several years.

Naomi Hirahara is currently a writer of both fiction and non-fiction works and the Edgar Award-winning Mas Arai mystery series.

Naomi Hirahara was born in 1962 in Pasadena, California, to father, Isamu, Kibei born in Watsonville, and mother, Mayumi, born in Hiroshima.

Naomi Hirahara began writing when she was in elementary school in Altadena, California.

Naomi Hirahara received her bachelor's degree from Stanford University in international relations with a focus on Africa and spent a summer during her studies volunteering with the YWCA in Ghana.

In 1996, Naomi Hirahara quit her job, took a fellowship for creative writing with the Milton Center at Newman University in Wichita, Kansas and committed to working full-time as a creative writer.

Naomi Hirahara sold her first fiction book, Summer of the Big Bachi, in 2003.

In 2014, Naomi Hirahara began a new series, though Mas Arai's story has at least two more chapters.

Naomi Hirahara's first book in which the main character was a woman was a juvenile fiction work, 1001 Cranes, published in 2008.