Naomi Hirahara


Naomi Hirahara is an American mystery writer and journalist. She edited the largest Japanese-American daily newspaper, Rafu Shimpo, for several years. She is currently a writer of both fiction and non-fiction works and the Edgar Award-winning Mas Arai mystery series.
WWW naomihirahara.com

Biography

Naomi Hirahara was born in 1962 in Pasadena, California, to father, Isamu, Kibei born in Watsonville, and mother, Mayumi, born in Hiroshima. Both parents were survivors of the Hiroshima bombing.
She began writing when she was in elementary school in Altadena, California. She received her bachelor's degree from Stanford University in international relations with a focus on Africa and spent a summer during her studies volunteering with the YWCA in Ghana. After her 1983 graduation, she furthered her education at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Tokyo.
After a brief job as an editorial assistant, Hirahara began working at the Rafu Shimpo newspaper in 1984, as a writer about the city of Los Angeles. Three years later, she began working at a boutique public relations firm to allow more time for creative writing and taking classes at the UCLA extension. After three years, she was asked to come back as an editor at the Rafu Shimpo. She began writing nonfiction books in the 1990s. In 1996, Hirahara quit her job, took a fellowship for creative writing with the Milton Center at Newman University in Wichita, Kansas and committed to working full-time as a creative writer. In 2001, she published a non-fiction work, Green Makers: Japanese American Gardeners in Southern California and later that year published An American Son: The Story of George Aratani, Founder of Mikasa and Kenwood. In 2002, Distinguished Asian American Business Leaders was released.
She sold her first fiction book, Summer of the Big Bachi, in 2003. It received a positive review in the Chicago Tribune, which later that year named it one of the "10 best mysteries and thrillers of 2004". Publishers Weekly named it one of the "Best Books of 2004". The book turned out to be the first of a series about an aging Japanese-American gardener, Mas Arai, a survivor of the atomic bomb, but the character was American-born. Though he has a college degree, racial prejudice prevents him from obtaining other work, and he becomes a gardener, mirroring Hirahara's father's experience. Mas Arai became the featured character in Gasa Gasa Girl, Snakeskin Shamishen, Blood Hina and Strawberry Yellow. In 2007, the third book in her series, Snakeskin Shamishen won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. The following year, the series began being released in Japan.
In 2014, Hirahara began a new series, though Mas Arai's story has at least two more chapters. The new series features a young bicycle policewoman, Ellie Rush, who is the central character in Hirahara's seventh novel, Murder on Bamboo Lane. While the Arai series focuses on California centered around the World War II generation, the Rush series is contemporary and expands on Hirahara's desire to speak from a woman's point of view. Her first book in which the main character was a woman was a juvenile fiction work, 1001 Cranes, published in 2008. Her most recent book in the Ellie Rush series, Grave on Grand Avenue has received positive reviews, and has been featured as a "Best Book" by Publishers Weekly. Her next book, Crown City, is being released February 2026.

Awards and honors

Summer of the Big Bachi was named one of the "10 best mysteries and thrillers of 2004" by the Chicago Tribune, as well as one of the "Best Books of 2004" by Publishers Weekly.
In 2019, CrimeReads included Iced in Paradise in their list of the year's best traditional mystery novels. Two years later, they included Clark and Division on their list of the year's best crime novels. Amazon also included the novel on their list of the year's best Mysteries and Thrillers.
YearTitleAwardResult
2005Summer of the Big BachiMacavity Award for Best First NovelFinalist
2007Snakeskin ShamisenAnthony Award for Best Paperback OriginalFinalist
2007Snakeskin ShamisenEdgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback OriginalWinner
2014Murder on Bamboo LaneT. Jefferson Parker Mystery AwardFinalist
2019Hiroshima BoyAnthony Award for Best Paperback OriginalFinalist
2019Hiroshima BoyEdgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback OriginalFinalist
2019Hiroshima BoyMacavity Award for Best Mystery NovelFinalist
2022Clark and DivisionAgatha Award for Best Historical NovelFinalist
2022Clark and DivisionAnthony Award for Best NovelFinalist
2022Clark and DivisionLefty Award for Best Historical MysteryWinner
2022Clark and DivisionSimon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark AwardWinner
2022Clark and DivisionSue Feder Historical Mystery AwardWinner

Selected works

A Japantown Mystery series

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Other fiction

Non-fiction