About Hiromi
Hiromi Goto was born in Chiba-ken, Japan, near Tokyo. In 1969, her family immigrated to Canada. They lived on the west coast of British Columbia for eight years before moving to Nanton, Alberta, where her parents established their second mushroom farm. Her grandmother lived with her family from the time Hiromi was five years old, and was and is a great influential force in her life.
Hiromi attended the University of Calgary and graduated in 1989 with a B.A. in Humanities. Some of the influences of her writing include stories shared by her grandmother and parents, folk legends, ghost stories, urban myth, science, feminism, social justice, science fiction, and the absurd.
Her novel, Chorus of Mushrooms (1994), received the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book in the Caribbean and Canada region and was co-winner of the Canada-Japan Book Award. Her short stories and poetry have been widely published in literary journals and anthologies. Her second novel, The Kappa Child (2001), was a finalist for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Regional Book, and was awarded the James Tiptree Jr. Memorial Award. Her first children’s novel, The Water of Possibility, was also published that year. Hopeful Monsters, a collection of short stories, was released in 2004 and her latest novel, Half World (2009, Penguin Canada), will be released with Viking US in Spring 2010. Her latest book, a long poem co-written with David Bateman, will be coming out Fall 2009. Wait Until Late Afternoon is her first book-length poetry publication.
Hiromi is an active member of the literary community, a writing instructor, editor and the mother of two children. She is currently living in Edmonton, Alberta, as the 2009/10 Writer-in-Residence at the University of Alberta and is working on her next novel.
Hiromi Goto is represented by The Cooke Agency
