Katie Kitamura

Katie Kitamura
Kitamura at the National Book Festival 2025
Born	1979 (age 46–47) Sacramento, California, U.S.
Language	English
Education	Princeton University London Consortium (PhD)
Notable works	The Longshot
Spouse	Hari Kunzru
Children	2

Katie Kitamura (born 1979) is an American novelist, journalist, and art critic known for her minimalist prose and psychological intensity. Her work frequently explores themes of identity, performance, and the fragility of human connection. Kitamura gained significant international recognition for her novels A Separation (2017) and Intimacies (2021), and her 2025 novel Audition was a nominee for the prestigious Booker Prize.

As of April 2025, she was teaching creative writing at New York University.

Katie Kitamura was born in Sacramento, California, United States,^[1] in 1979, to a family of Japanese origin,^[2] and she was raised in Davis, where her father Ryuichi was a professor at UC Davis Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.^[3][4][5]

Kitamura graduated from Princeton University in New Jersey in 1999. She earned a PhD in American literature from the London Consortium.^[6] Her thesis was titled The Aesthetics of Vulgarity and the Modern American Novel (2005).^[7]

Earlier in her life, Kitamura trained as a ballerina.^[8][9]

Kitamura wrote Japanese for Travellers: A Journey, describing her travels across Japan and examining the dichotomies of its society and her own place in it as a Japanese-American.^[10]

Kitamura was introduced to mixed martial arts in Japan by her brother.^[11] Her first novel, The Longshot, published in 2009, is about the preparation undertaken by a fighter and his trainer ahead of a championship bout against a famous opponent. The cover art of the US edition of her book features the title tattooed on knuckles; the knuckles are her brother's.^[8] Kitamura's second novel, Gone to the Forest, published in 2013, is set in an unnamed colonial country and describes the life and suffering of a landowning family against a backdrop of civil strife and political change.^[12]

Kitamura gained wider recognition with A Separation (2017), a novel about a woman who travels to Greece to locate her estranged husband, only to confront truths about their relationship.^[13] The book was praised for its taut propulsive prose.^[14] A Separation will be adapted for a film starring Katherine Waterston.^[15]

Her 2021 novel, Intimacies, follows an interpreter working at the International Criminal Court at The Hague. The novel explores language, power, and ethical responsibility, and was widely acclaimed for its examination of institutional and personal ethics.^[16][17] It was long listed for the National Book Award for Fiction and was named one of the best books for the year by several publications.

Kitamura writes for The Guardian, The New York Times, and Wired.^[3] She has written articles on mixed martial arts,^[18] film criticism and analysis,^[19] and art.^[20][21]

In 2010, Kitamura's The Longshot was shortlisted for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award.^[22] In 2013, her Gone to the Forest was also shortlisted for the Young Lions Fiction Award. In 2021, Kitamura's Intimacies was longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction.^[23] In 2025 Kitamura was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship,^[24] and her novel Audition was shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize.^[25]

• —— (2006). Japanese for Travellers: A Journey. Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 978-0241142899.

• —— (2009). The Longshot: A Novel. Free Press. ISBN 978-1439117606.
• —— (2013). Gone to the Forest. Profile Books. ISBN 978-1847659071.
• —— (2017). A Separation. Penguin Random House. ISBN 978-0399576126.
• —— (2021). Intimacies. Riverhead Books. ISBN 978-0399576164.
• —— (2025). Audition. Riverhead Books. ISBN 978-0593852323.

• Art criticism in Frieze magazine.^[26]
• Art criticism in Contemporary magazine.^[27]

Kitamura is married to author Hari Kunzru;^[28] the couple have two children together.^[29]