Rate My Professor Karen Yamashita

Karen Tei Yamashita is Professor Emerita and Dickson Emeriti Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research interests include the history and anthropology of Japanese immigration to Brazil, Asian American literature, modern fiction, playwriting, creative writing fiction, and Asian American literature. She served as co-holder of the UC Presidential Chair in Feminist Critical Race and Ethnic Studies from 2012 to 2015 alongside Professor Bettina Aptheker from Feminist Studies. Yamashita has held affiliations across multiple departments and programs at UC Santa Cruz, including the Literature Department, Creative Writing Program, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Latin American and Latino Studies, and East Asian Studies.

Yamashita is the author of eight books published by Coffee House Press: Sansei & Sensibility (2020), Letters to Memory (2017), Anime Wong: Fictions of Performance (2014), I Hotel (2010), Circle K Cycles (2001), Tropic of Orange (1997), Brazil-Maru (1992), and Through the Arc of the Rain Forest (1990). I Hotel was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Award in Fiction and received the 2012 Association for Asian American Studies Prose Book Award, the 2011 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, the 2011 Asian American Literary Award First Finalist in Fiction and Asian American Members' Choice Award from the Asian American Writers' Workshop, the 2010 California Book Award Gold Medal in Fiction from the Commonwealth Club of California, and the 2010 Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association Award in Fiction. Her numerous honors also include election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2024 as a Literature Fellow, the 2021 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contributions to Literature, the 2021 Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professorship, the 2018 John dos Passos Award for Literature, the 2011-12 United States Artists Ford Foundation Fellowship, the 2009 UCSC Chancellor's Achievement Award for Diversity, the 2001 UCSC Excellence in Teaching Award, the 1998 Alumni Award for Distinguished Achievement from Carleton College, the 1992 Janet Heidinger Kafka Award, and the 1991 American Book Award for Through the Arc of the Rain Forest.