Online Event: Suzanne Kamata on Creating a Writerly Life
Nov 22, 2025
Online event
Join SCBWI Japan November 22nd online - 10:00-11:30 am Japan Time
Award winning author, Suzanne Kamata joins us to talk about how she has developed and maintained her literary career.
Originally from the US, Suzanne has lived and worked in a remote part of Japan, Tokushima, for more than half her life, surrounded by non-English speakers. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, she has managed to forge a successful and prolific literary career across genres, publishing middle-grade and YA novels, writing fiction and non-fiction works, short stories, magazine articles and developing educational materials. Her work has also been published in the US, Spain, Singapore and Japan.
Join us to find out how Suzanne has grown and sustained her writerly life, navigating changing trends in publishing and writing across genres.
Bio
Suzanne Kamata was born and raised in Michigan, but she has lived in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan, over half of her life. Her short stories and poems have been published in numerous publications for children and young adults, and she is the author of several books for young readers, including 'Screaming Divas' (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2014), which was named to the ALA Rainbow List. See also those listed below. Her most recent contribution to literature for young readers is a textbook, 'Summer at Cinnamon Beach' (Asahi Press, 2025). Suzanne earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. She is currently an associate professor at Naruto University of Education, where she is conducting research on the use of English language picture books in language teaching, and writing a story set in a cat café with her international students.
