Jean Gordon Kocienda Brings GIRL IN A BOX to Mill Valley Public Library
Book Research Pro Tips: Outside-the-box ways to research details of everyday life in another time, country or culture Learn how to think outside the box when it comes to discovering how your characters’ lives were different than they’d be today. Two professional historical fiction writers share tips on unusual sources that can be tapped to fill in essential details about living in other eras, other countries and other cultures.
Jean Gordon Kocienda will be in discussion at the Mill Valley Public Library on June 27th from 1pm-2:30pm, raising writing tips with her new novel Girl in a Box. Books will be available to purchase at the event.
Please RSVP on the library’s website here.
About Girl in a Box:
The tangled life of the Japanese poet Yosano Akiko
In early twentieth century, Japan, women have few rights. Yet one precocious poet—a brooding daughter, locked in her room at night by protective parents—runs away from home to live a life of her choosing . She falls in love with a fellow poet and follows him across Siberia to Paris, where they witness the last days of the Belle Êpoque. She perseveres through poverty, back-to-back pregnancies, infidelity, earthquake, and fire, to become a name every Japanese schoolchild knows today as a pioneering feminist poet and the first person to translate the classical Tale of Genji into modern Japanese. In her single-minded dedication to her art, she inflicts wounds on a daughter that echo from her own childhood. She sets out to make amends, knowing it may be too late. Based on the life of poet Yosano Akiko (1878-1942) and filled with original translations of her poetry, Girl in a Box will ignite the discussion about the female artist’s challenge to create while juggling family, career, and personal freedom. Historical fiction at its best.
About Jean Gordon Kocienda:
A former CIA officer and Silicon Valley geopolitical analyst, Jean Gordon Kocienda is now focused on writing and volunteering with refugee families in the Bay Area. Jean holds a B.A. in English Literature (Colgate University) and M.A. in International Affairs (George Washington University). Currently nestled in the redwoods of Marin County with her husband and cats, she has lived in Japan and speaks Japanese. She is Vice President of the California Writers Club Marin Chapter.
