Marie Mutsuki Mockett is a writer who currently lives in New York. Her fiction has been published or is forthcoming in South Dakota Review, New Delta Review, North Dakota Quarterly, The Portland Review, LIT, The Texas Review, Primavera, and Phoebe. Her poems have been published or are forthcoming in Carquinez Poetry Review, The Distillery, Fugue, The Ledge, West Wind Review, and Berkeley Poetry Review. She is a regular contributor to Japundit, and is represented by William Clark Associates.

Marie was born in California to a Japanese mother and American father. Her mother and father met in Vienna, Austria, where both were studying music. Because German was the only language her parents shared in common, Marie grew up speaking Japanese with her mother, and German with both her parents, only learning English once she started school. Through numerous trips to Japan, Marie developed a deep love of her mother’s homeland. Her father, an Asian art collector and restorer, taught her the value of beautiful things.

Marie graduated from Columbia University in 1992 with a degree in East Asian Languages and Civilizations. In her thesis, “Shamanism in Japan,” she explored the powerful role that women have played in developing Japan’s indigenous religion of Shinto. Currently she is at work on a novel set in the United States and Japan in addition to a series of short stories. Her varied work experience has included freelance writing. In 1999, Marie wrote and edited articles for a special issue of Newsweek magazine titled “How to Be a Great Mentor.” The foreword of this issue was written by Jonathan Alter, the conclusion by General Colin Powell. In her spare time, Marie loves to take dance class, read, travel, study languages, knit and enjoy old and new friends.