Ruth Ozeki was born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut, by an American father and a Japanese mother. She studied English and Asian Studies at Smith College and traveled extensively in Asia, including graduate work in classical Japanese literature at Nara University.

Ozeki returned to New York in 1985 and began a film career as an art director. Her first novel, My Year of Meats, won the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Award, the Imus/Barnes and Noble American Book Award, and a Special Jury Prize of the World Cookbook Awards in Versailles. It is the choice for this year’s WSU Common Book. Ozeki’s second book, All Over Creation, won the 2004 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation and the Willa Literary Award for Contemporary Fiction.

Ozeki currently divides her time between New York City where she serves on the board of Women Make Movies, and British Columbia, where she writes, knits socks, and raises exotic Chinese chickens with her husband, artist Oliver Kellhammer.