Mineko Iwasaki
Mineko Iwasaki (born Masako Tanaka) is a Japanese businesswoman, author and former geisha. Iwasaki was the most famous geisha in Japan until her sudden retirement at the age of 29. Known for her performances for celebrity and royalty during her geisha life, Iwasaki was the heir apparent (atotori) to her geisha house (okiya) while she was just a young apprentice.
American author Arthur Golden interviewed her for background information when writing his 1997 book, Memoirs of a Geisha. Iwasaki later regretted interviewing for Golden, having cited a breach of confidentiality, and later sued and settled out of court with Golden for the parallelism between his book and her life. In 2002, she released her own autobiography, titled Geisha of Gion in
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Arthur Golden
Arthur Sulzberger Golden is an American writer. He is the author of the bestselling novel Memoirs of a Geisha (1997).
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Arthur Golden
Arthur Sulzberger Golden is an American writer. He is the author of the bestselling novel Memoirs of a Geisha (1997).
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Shūsaku Endō
Shusaku Endo (遠藤周作), born in Tokyo in 1923, was raised by his mother and an aunt in Kobe where he converted to Roman Catholicism at the age of eleven. At Tokyo's Keio University he majored in French literature, graduating BA in 1949, before furthering his studies in French Catholic literature at the University of Lyon in France between 1950 and 1953. A major theme running through his books, which have been translated into many languages, including English, French, Russian and Swedish, is the failure of Japanese soil to nurture the growth of Christianity. Before his death in 1996, Endo was the recipient of a number of outstanding Japanese literary awards: the Akutagawa Prize, Mainichi Cultural Prize, Shincho Prize, and Tanizaki Prize.
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(from t -
Claire Tomalin
Born Claire Delavenay in London, she was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge.
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She became literary editor of the 'New Statesman' and also the 'Sunday Times'. She has written several noted biographies and her work has been recognised with the award of the 1990 James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the 1991 Hawthornden Prize for 'The Invisible Woman The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens'.
In addition, her biography of Samuel Pepys won the Whitbread Book Award in 2002, the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize in 2003, the Latham Prize of the Samuel Pepys Club in 2003, and was also shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2003.
She married her first husband, Nicholas Tomalin, who was a prominent journalist but who was killed in the Arab-Israeli Yo -
Lesley Downer
I write historical fiction set in Japan - women’s untold stories, largely true and based on meticulous and detailed research, though primarily, of course, good yarns. I’ve just finished The Shogun’s Queen, the fourth of The Shogun Quartet, four novels set in the nineteenth century during the tumultuous fifteen years when Japan was convulsed by civil war and transformed from rule by the shoguns into a society that looked to the west.
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Preorder: http://bit.ly/TheShogunsQueen
The second, The Last Concubine, was shortlisted for Romantic Novel of the Year 2009 and translated into 30 languages. The other two novels are The Courtesan and the Samurai and The Samurai’s Daughter. My non-fiction on Japan includes Geisha: The Remarkable Truth Behind the -
Ellis Avery
The only writer ever to have received the American Library Association Stonewall Award for Fiction twice, Ellis Avery is the author of two novels, a memoir, and a book of poetry. Her novels, The Last Nude (Riverhead 2012) and The Teahouse Fire (Riverhead 2006) have also received Lambda, Ohioana, and Golden Crown awards, and her work has been translated into six languages. She teaches fiction writing at Columbia University and out of her home in the West Village.
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Raised in Columbus, Ohio and Princeton, New Jersey, Avery’s first love as a reader was the high fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien and Ursula K. LeGuin. In her teenage years, she discovered writers like Annie Dillard and Virginia Woolf, whose lush specificity tempted her back to the waking wo -
Gail Tsukiyama
Born to a Chinese mother and a Japanese father in San Francisco, Gail Tsukiyama now lives in El Cerrito, California. Her novels include Women of the Silk (1991), The Samurai's Garden (1995), Night of Many Dreams (1998), The Language of Threads (1999), Dreaming Water (2002), and The Street of a Thousand Blossoms (2007).
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Sayo Masuda
Masuda was born in 1925, near the town of Shiojiri in Nagano Prefecture. During her later teen years, into her early twenties, she was an onsen geisha at a hot-spring resort in Japan. After this, she became a prostitute, vigorously protesting the passage of anti-prostitution laws. She eventually got a job making soap for a Korean worker, which she held for several months. When the soap business failed, she began drinking heavily, which led to her near death from liver failure and a suicide attempt. She survived and quit drinking, and when she had sufficiently recovered, she began to look after children, eventually becoming a full-time caretaker for several years. Eventually, she was able to open her own restaurant, and ran it for several de
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Michael McDowell
Michael McDowell is a prolific horror writer who has distinguished himself with a varied body of work within the genre. He was born in Enterprise, Alabama, in 1950 and died of AIDS-related illness in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1999.
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His first horror novel, The Amulet, relates the tragedies that befall various individuals who come in possession of a supernatural pendant in a small town.
In McDowell's second novel, Cold Moon Over Babylon, a murdered woman's corpse is dispatched into a river, but her spirit roams the land, and in the evening hours it seeks revenge on her killer even as he plots the demise of her surviving relatives.
Don D'Ammassa, writing in the St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers, noted that McDowell's ability to -
Jean Edward Smith
Jean Edward Smith was the John Marshall Professor of Political Science at Marshall University and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto after having served as professor of political economy there for thirty-five years. Smith also served as professor of history and government at Ashland University.
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A graduate of McKinley High School in Washington, D.C., Smith received an A.B. from Princeton University in 1954. While attending Princeton, Smith was mentored under law professor and political scientist William M. Beaney. Professor Beaney's American Constitutional Law: Introductory Essays & Selected Cases, became a standard text and was widely used in university constitutional law classes for several years. Serving in the military from 1 -
Kafū Nagai
Kafū Nagai (永井 荷風 Nagai Kafū, December 3, 1879 - April 30, 1959) is the pen name of Japanese author, playwright, essayist, and diarist Nagai Sōkichi (永井 壮吉). His works are noted for their depictions of life in early 20th-century Tokyo, especially among geisha, prostitutes, cabaret dancers, and other denizens of the city's lively entertainment districts.
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(from Wikipedia)
Variation of names of the same author:
永井荷风
Kafū Nagai
永井 荷風
永井荷風 -
Liza Dalby
With its fascinating story of characters caught up in a world they themselves don't understand, Hidden Buddhas may well be Liza Dalby's best work yet. Besides taking us on a journey through little-known corners of Japan, it offers us an engaging and believable portrait of people driven to do things they may not have imagined." --Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha
According to esoteric Buddhist theology, the world is suffering through a final corrupt era. Many in Japan believe that after the world ends, the Buddha of the Future will appear and bring about a new age of enlightenment. Hundreds of temples in Japan are known to keep mysterious hidden buddhas secreted away except on rare designated viewing days. Are they being protected
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Dulce Chacón
Dulce Chacón Gutiérrez (Zafra, Badajoz, Spain, June 6, 1954 – Madrid, December 3, 2003) was a Spanish poet, novelist and playwright.
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Born into a traditional family in the Extremadura region of Spain, her family moved to Madrid on her father's' death, when she was 12 years old.
In spite of growing up in a conservative family, Dulce Chacón soon became a progressive person, due to the victims caused by the Spanish dictatorship. Her motto towards this issue was “neither bitterness nor oblivion”.
She started writing at an early age even though she did not publish until 1992 when her first book of poetry, Querrán ponerle nombre, appeared. Two more books of poetry then followed: Las palabras de la piedra and Contra el desprestigio de la altura, in 19 -
Craig Brown
Craig Edward Moncrieff Brown (born 23 May 1957, Hayes, Middlesex) is a British critic and satirist from England, probably best known for his work in British magazine Private Eye.
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Anne Michaud
Anne Michaud is the politics editor for Crain's NY Business and a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal. She previously wrote a nationally syndicated op-ed column for Newsday and was twice named "Columnist of the Year," by the New York News Publishers Association and the New York State Associated Press Association. She has won more than 25 writing and reporting awards.
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"Why They Stay: Sex Scandals, Deals, and Hidden Agendas of Nine Political Wives" (Ogunquit Press, March 2017) has won multiple national book honors, including in the categories of Women’s Issues and Current Events. A second edition, updated to include Donald and Melania Trump, was published in 2021, along with an e-book, "American Czarina." Details available at annemicha -
Fiona Carnarvon
Note: This is the Goodreads listing for the 8th Countess of Carnarvon.
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A former auditor for Coopers & Lybrand, Lady Carnarvon is the wife of George Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon. Today, she manages affairs at Highclere Castle, home of the worldwide television drama Downton Abbey, including overseeing its grounds and gardens and many special events such as the Egyptian Exhibition in the cellars of the Castle.
Fascinated by Highclere’s history, Lady Carnarvon has written four books. The first two are about the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, who discovered King Tutankhamun’s tomb with Howard Carter in 1922. Her latest are New York Times Bestseller Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere, and Lady Catherine and the Real Down -
Todor Bombov
Todor Bombov a native of Bulgaria has been writing for many years, so many he himself finds it hard to recall the exact number. From writing in his spare time to having two publications in United States, a sci-fi story "Of Rats and Men" as well as an economic and political analysis of ex -socialism in Eastern Europe and USSR "Socialism Is Dead! Long Live Socialism!" he now brings his forward thinking wayward words to the Western World. But Are they ready to accept?!
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A 25 year Veteran Customs officer Mr Bombov also enjoys Astrology, the Black Sea and holds a degree in Economics and Computer Technology.
Of Rats and Men reserved for those with an Open Mind!
Socialism Is Dead! Long Live Socialism! reserved for the Clever Thinking Men!
Fun Facts:
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Elísabet Benavent
Elísabet Benavent (Valencia, 1984) es licenciada en Comunicación Audiovisual por la Universidad Cardenal Herrera CEU de Valencia y máster en Comunicación y Arte por la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. En la actualidad trabaja en el Departamento de Comunicación de una multinacional. Su pasión es la escritura. La publicación en 2013 de sus novelas En los zapatos de Valeria, Valeria en el espejo, Valeria en blanco y negro y Valeria al desnudo se ha convertido en un éxito total de crítica y ventas con más de 120.000 ejemplares vendidos. Los derechos audiovisuales de la saga Valeria se han vendido para televisión. En la actualidad se ocupa de la familia Coqueta y está inmersa en la escritura.
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Aimee Cabo Nikolov
Aimee Cabo Nikolov is a Cuban American who has lived most of her life in Miami. She is a speaker, trained nurse and the president and owner of IMIC, Inc, a medical research company in Palmetto Bay.
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Aimee is also the host of "The Cure with Aimee Cabo", a nationally syndicated live radio show, and later a podcast. https://godisthecure.com
She lives with her husband, Dr. Boris Nikolov, and two of her children, Sean and Michelle. This is her first book. The book won several awards - Pinnacle, NYC Big book award, Feathered Quill Gold/1st place.
The Second book is inspired by her work at the radio show and is a compilation of Christian poems based on popular songs. -
Shūsaku Endō
Shusaku Endo (遠藤周作), born in Tokyo in 1923, was raised by his mother and an aunt in Kobe where he converted to Roman Catholicism at the age of eleven. At Tokyo's Keio University he majored in French literature, graduating BA in 1949, before furthering his studies in French Catholic literature at the University of Lyon in France between 1950 and 1953. A major theme running through his books, which have been translated into many languages, including English, French, Russian and Swedish, is the failure of Japanese soil to nurture the growth of Christianity. Before his death in 1996, Endo was the recipient of a number of outstanding Japanese literary awards: the Akutagawa Prize, Mainichi Cultural Prize, Shincho Prize, and Tanizaki Prize.
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(from t -
Lucy M. Boston
Lucy M. Boston (1892–1990), born Lucy Maria Wood, was an English novelist who wrote for children and adults, publishing her work entirely after the age of 60. She is best known for her "Green Knowe" series: six low fantasy children's novels published by Faber between 1954 and 1976. The setting is Green Knowe, an old country manor house based on Boston's Cambridgeshire home at Hemingford Grey. For the fourth book in the series, A Stranger at Green Knowe (1961), she won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.[1]
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During her long life, she distinguished herself as a writer, mainly of children’s books, and as the creator of a magical garden. She was also an accompl -
Gail Tsukiyama
Born to a Chinese mother and a Japanese father in San Francisco, Gail Tsukiyama now lives in El Cerrito, California. Her novels include Women of the Silk (1991), The Samurai's Garden (1995), Night of Many Dreams (1998), The Language of Threads (1999), Dreaming Water (2002), and The Street of a Thousand Blossoms (2007).
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Lesley Downer
I write historical fiction set in Japan - women’s untold stories, largely true and based on meticulous and detailed research, though primarily, of course, good yarns. I’ve just finished The Shogun’s Queen, the fourth of The Shogun Quartet, four novels set in the nineteenth century during the tumultuous fifteen years when Japan was convulsed by civil war and transformed from rule by the shoguns into a society that looked to the west.
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Preorder: http://bit.ly/TheShogunsQueen
The second, The Last Concubine, was shortlisted for Romantic Novel of the Year 2009 and translated into 30 languages. The other two novels are The Courtesan and the Samurai and The Samurai’s Daughter. My non-fiction on Japan includes Geisha: The Remarkable Truth Behind the -
Liza Dalby
With its fascinating story of characters caught up in a world they themselves don't understand, Hidden Buddhas may well be Liza Dalby's best work yet. Besides taking us on a journey through little-known corners of Japan, it offers us an engaging and believable portrait of people driven to do things they may not have imagined." --Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha
According to esoteric Buddhist theology, the world is suffering through a final corrupt era. Many in Japan believe that after the world ends, the Buddha of the Future will appear and bring about a new age of enlightenment. Hundreds of temples in Japan are known to keep mysterious hidden buddhas secreted away except on rare designated viewing days. Are they being protected
Buy books on Amazon -
Sayo Masuda
Masuda was born in 1925, near the town of Shiojiri in Nagano Prefecture. During her later teen years, into her early twenties, she was an onsen geisha at a hot-spring resort in Japan. After this, she became a prostitute, vigorously protesting the passage of anti-prostitution laws. She eventually got a job making soap for a Korean worker, which she held for several months. When the soap business failed, she began drinking heavily, which led to her near death from liver failure and a suicide attempt. She survived and quit drinking, and when she had sufficiently recovered, she began to look after children, eventually becoming a full-time caretaker for several years. Eventually, she was able to open her own restaurant, and ran it for several de
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Erika Mailman
Update April 2018: The Murderer's Maid: A Lizzie Borden Novel just won a gold medal in Historical Fiction from the IPPY Awards, awarded to small press publications, university press publications and self-published books. I'm grateful to Bonhomie Press (an imprint of Yellow Pear Press) for entering the book into the awards!
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Erika Mailman is the author of THE WITCH'S TRINITY(Random House, 2007), a novel about a medieval woman accused of witchcraft, WOMAN OF ILL FAME (Heyday Books, 2007), about a Gold Rush prostitute caught in a serial killer's web, HOUSE OF BELLAVER, a literary ghost story involving Shakespeare and suffrage, and THE MURDERER'S MAID: A LIZZIE BORDEN NOVEL, the famous true crime story told from the Irish maid Bridget Sullivan's -
Toriyama Sekien
Japanese painter whose real name was Toyofusa Sano. It is one of the precursors of ukiyo-e, a genre of engravings made by woodcut. Sekien's artistic work was based almost exclusively on the representation of monsters and ghosts. his yokai are based on traditional texts and some previous paintings and prints. Sekien's compilation is made up of four books: The Night Parade of the One Hundred Demon Illustrated (1776), One Hundred Illustrated Demons of the Present and the Past (1779), Supplement of the One Hundred Demons of the Present and the Past (1780) and The Bag of the hundred utensils appeared at random (1784).
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Janice P. Nimura
Janice P. Nimura received a Public Scholar Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities in support of her work on The Doctors Blackwell. Her previous book, Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back, was a New York Times Notable book in 2015. Her essays and book reviews have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Salon, and LitHub, among other publications.
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Kafū Nagai
Kafū Nagai (永井 荷風 Nagai Kafū, December 3, 1879 - April 30, 1959) is the pen name of Japanese author, playwright, essayist, and diarist Nagai Sōkichi (永井 壮吉). His works are noted for their depictions of life in early 20th-century Tokyo, especially among geisha, prostitutes, cabaret dancers, and other denizens of the city's lively entertainment districts.
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(from Wikipedia)
Variation of names of the same author:
永井荷风
Kafū Nagai
永井 荷風
永井荷風 -
Ina R. Friedman
I am a writer and storyteller, and I have appeared throughout the United States sharing stories from my books and receiving in return stories from my audiences. Gathering material for my books on the Holocaust and World War II (Young Adult) has taken me to five continents and enabled me to meet and interact with people of all ages and from many cultures whom I otherwise would not have met. I am married to an engineer. I have four grown children, two stepdaughters, and six grandchildren–my best critics. I have a B.A. from Penn State University in Psychology and a Master’s degree from Lesley in Storytelling.
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Sunisa Manning
Sunisa Manning was born and raised in Bangkok by Thai and American parents. She went to Brown University and now lives in California. Her work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Rumpus and other places. She's been honoured with residencies at Hedgebrook and Hambidge, and awarded fellowships at San Jose State and the SF Writer’s Grotto. A Good True Thai is her first novel.
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Flora Fraser
Flora Fraser Soros (born 30 October 1958) is an English writer of historical biographies.
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She is the daughter of historian and historical biographer Lady Antonia Fraser and the late Sir Hugh Fraser, a British Conservative politician. Her stepfather was the playwright Harold Pinter, the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, her mother's second husband until his death in 2008. Her maternal grandparents were the late Elizabeth Longford, also an eminent biographer, and the late Lord Longford, a well-known politician, social reformer, and author.
She was named after Scottish Jacobite Flora MacDonald. Using her maiden name Flora Fraser, she has written biographies of Emma Hamilton, Caroline of Brunswick, the daughters of George III, and Pauline Bonapa -
Henrietta Leyser
An English historian: an expert on the history of medieval England, in particular the role of women.
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