Woman. Warrior. Writer. 3-2023
Marie Mutsuki Mockett Vol. 4 no.3 March 5, 2023
Aloha,
Meet Woman. Warrior. Writer. Marie Mutsuki Mockett!
How did you come to author your life?
Tayari Jones once challenged me to think of the kind of life I wanted to lead, and how writing could make this life happen for me. When I am feeling lost, I return to her question. I’m sure I want what everyone else wants, but I especially prize travel, exploring mysteries and appreciating beauty; these things bring me joy. I try to explore new interests and incorporate these into my work. When I get it right, combining these things leads to a feeling of tremendous satisfaction and freedom.
Marie Mutsuki Mockett was born and raised in California to a Japanese mother and an American father and is the author of four books. Her new novel, “The Tree Doctor,” will be published by Graywolf Press in March 2024. Her earlier book, American Harvest: God, Country and Farming in the Heartland (Graywolf Press), won the 2021 Northern California Book Award for General Nonfiction and the 2021 Nebraska Book Award for Nonfiction-Solidarity. She was awarded the NEA-Japan US Friendship Commission, and a Fulbright to Japan for the 2022-2023 academic year.
NOTE: Where The Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye: A Journey is an excellent memoir—elegiac, lyrical, thoughtful. It’s the kind of book I would reread…and I never reread books. (sad but true…) I highly recommend it.
REGISTER FOR SPRING 2023 CLASSES
Women’s Creative Writing Workshop SATURDAYS April 8-29 8-10AM (HST) This mixed-level class emphasizes voice and narrative and comes with the opportunity to have a one-on-one session. I guarantee that you will leave class with more confidence about what you are writing. You will become familiar with your own creative process and learn what you need to do to write the work that you were meant to write.
I will be moving to a hybrid Women’s Creative Writing Workshop that is a self-paced class later this year. The next live (zoom) WCWW is fall 2023.
Open gender WRITING COACHING one on one for manuscripts, teaching strategies/syllabi, and divorce stories. Contact writer@drstephaniehan.com
10% discount for previous students and kama’aina. Please enter the code LOCAL
Asian/Asian American Women’s Creative Writing Workshop SATURDAYS June 3-July 22 7-9AM (HST) The only Asian/Asian American Women’s Creative Writing Workshop offered globally. Yeah, that’s right. (I can’t believe it either. But doesn’t that tell you something right there? Why AREN’T there more classes that center our writing?)
OPPORTUNITIES and NEWS
Author Darien Gee is offering an online micro memoir workshop on March 26, 2023 (Sunday), from 1:00 - 2:30 pm PST. $49. You’ll learn about personal micro essays (300 words or less), write two pieces during the workshop, and get guidance and support on what to do next and how the work may fit into your memoir project. For February and March, WWW readers get $10 off per class with code SH-MAR. Darien is also teaching online writing and ancestry workshops at Hugo House!
If you are on Spotify and have 45 seconds of music, please feel free to submit the title/name and web address of your clip from Spotify for consideration for The Conversation on HPR. Music cues are 15-30 second music, but you must have a 45 second clip. Send it to shan@hawaiipublicradio.org I’d like to play women musicians and/or local musicians from Hawai’i.
Iris Kim (WCWW, Asian/Asian American Women’s Writing Workshop) has a story on layoffs and Asian American creatives in NBC Asian America
Lisa Kwong is giving a live reading from her book Becoming AppalAsian 3/12 at Morgenstern Books in Bloomington
Susan Muaddi Darraj has written a Spotify podcast for Kids and Family based on the stories of Arabian Nights for children. Check it out!
Syllabus Authors/Guest Writers/Workshop Alum, send in your writing news/links for inclusion in the next WWW newsletter!
Woman. Warrior. Writer. tote bags are now available $26.99. Support the WWW Scholarship fund!
Some stories I’ve filed for HPR’s The Conversation—
On Black women’s leadership in Hawai’i with Bridget Morgan-Bickerton
Betsey Stockton, the first woman to teach Hawaiian children (who were not royalty) and research by Prof. Allison Gough on Black Soldiers in Hawai'i in WW2
Korean Music is linked to shaman practices and is rooted in improvisation n. Left to right: Yoonjeong Her (her group Black String is on Spotify), Me, Jiyoung Yi, and composer Donald Reid Womack. I learned (not on the segment) that Korean music differs from Chinese and Japanese music because of the rhythm patterns. Korean music deploys three beats. Chinese and Japanese two. These women are considered the most renowned players of Korean traditional instruments.
DIVORCE RESOURCES
When I was getting a divorce I noted that there is a ton of stuff online about buying your bridesmaids bouquets to match your wedding shoes and there is hardly any stuff about about divorce.
Why? SHAME. People don’t want to talk about divorce. 1 in 5 children in the US are raised in a single parent household and we act like divorce doesn’t happen. How many people do you know who divorced? And we still act like it doesn’t happen?
Divorce is the subject of my current manuscript-in-progress: BREAK
This is the book I wish I had when I was getting my divorce. Self-Help. Non-fiction. No God stuff. I’m giving women a template to write their divorce story. If women remain silent, the divorce story that stands is the one that is rooted in the laws, ideals, ethics, and beliefs that center a patriarchal norm. That’s the one you keep in your mind. That’s the one your family knows. That’s the one society believes. I say…!@#$%&* because that is the story that says women should feel shame, have worse lives, and are inevitably unhappy if they divorce. That. Is. Crazy. And. Untrue. Divorce is hard, adjustment is hard. But not being who you are is even harder.
Write your story for your personal/legal file—click below to learn how.
BREAK: Divorce Story Resources
Reasons to Write Your Divorce Story
Scarlet Society: How to Write Your Divorce Story article
Scarlet Society: How to Write Your Divorce Story podcast
How to Write Your Divorce Story Youtube Video
WRITING TIP
Remember: you are not your character. It doesn’t matter how close the character is to you—it’s not you. Literary realism is about mimesis. Imitation of what is real. But nothing is perfectly real other than the very real thing that is you. You are writing a character that may be based on you. But it is not you.
Pass this along. See you in class! Don’t quit. Keep writing. You are not alone.
Aloha, Stephanie