Jean Davies Okimoto

Jean Davies Okimoto is the recipient of the American Library Association “Best Books for Young Adults” Award, the International Reading Association's Reader's Choice Award, the IRA/CBC Young Adults’ Choice Award, the Parents’ Choice Award, the Washington Governor's Award, the 1993 Maxwell Medallion for Best Children's Book of the Year, and two of her books have been recognized as Smithsonian Notable Books. In 2007 she received the Green Earth Book Award from the Newton Marasco Foundation and in 2008 the Green Prize for Sustainable Literature honor book, a national award given by the Santa Monica Public Library.

In connection with her non-fiction title, Boomerang Kids: How to Live with Adult Children who Return Home, she has appeared on the Today Show, the CBS Morning Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and CNN. Her publishers include Atlantic Monthly Press, Putnam, Little, Brown & Co., Dell, Scholastic, HarperCollins, and the Simul Press in Japan which has published Japanese editions of her novels My Mother Is Not Married To My Father and It's Just Too Much. Her short stories have also appeared in four Delacourte anthologies, Short Stories by Outstanding Writers for Young Adults. Shelley Duvall produced an animated version of Blumpoe the Grumpoe Meets Arnold the Cat for the series "Bedtime Stories" which was narrated by John Candy and appeared on HBO and Showtime.

Her one-act play, Hum it Again, Jeremy has been produced in schools in Vancouver, Toronto and New York. The Northwest Asian American Theater in Seattle produced the world premiere of Uncle Hideki based on her novel Talent Night and in 2006 produced Uncle Hideki and the Empty Nest. Book-it Repertory Theatre produced The Eclipse of Moonbeam Dawson based on her novel by the same name.

Her other titles include Norman Schnurman, Average Person, a mystery, Who Did It, Jenny Lake?, Jason's Women, Molly By Any Other Name, and Take A Chance, Gramps! which was a Junior Library Guild selection, named to the Lone Star State Reading List, and nominated for the Mark Twain Award and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award.

A Place For Grace, published by Sasquatch Books, was the first picture book for a general audience to feature a hearing dog and a deaf character and was praised by Smithsonian as "One of this year's most charming and large-hearted offerings." No Dear, Not Here a picture book about the marbled murrelets, endangered seabirds and their quest for a nest in the Pacific Northwest, is also a Sasquatch title and was designated a 1995 Smithsonian Notable Book for Children.

A member of PEN American Center, the Author's Guild and the Dramatists Guild, she has a master's degree in psychology from Antioch University and is the founder of the Seattle Reading Awards, which recognizes the fifth grade students in the Seattle Public Schools who have shown the most improvement in reading. http://www.jeandaviesokimoto.com

 
“...wonderful, touching, funny. Jean Davies Okimoto writes with literary perfect pitch.”
— Christiane Northrup, MD author and host of PBS television special Mother-Daughter Wisdom

“A lovely book, full of wisdom and compassion. With keen insight, the author examines the problems of achieving fulfillment as both a woman and an artist.”
— Barbara G. Walker author of The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets

“A fine painting of words by a true artist....so compelling that once you begin you cannot put it down.”

— Chizuko Judy Sugita de Queiroz artist and author of Camp Days 1942-1945
“Any woman who has ever wrestled with a difficult father will find inspiration and solace in these lucid pages.”

— Leza Lowitz former Tokyo correspondent for Art in America
"In this courageous journey, Okimoto gives us a model for any woman yearning to claim her truth, to be seen for who she is in her deepest heart. I was inspired by The Love Ceiling and recommend it for any woman seeking greater self-expression."

— Lisa Dale Norton, Author of Hawk Flies Above: Journey to the Heart of the Sandhills, and Shimmering Images: A Handy Little Guide to Writing Memoir

 

PageOneLit.com:  Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part of your life? Who were your earliest influences and why? 
 

Jean Davies Okimoto: I grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio and spent my summers in Northern Michigan near Traverse City.  My mother was the strongest influence on my becoming a writer; the times she read to me were among my happiest childhood memories. I first wanted to be a writer when I was ten and my best friend and I had a newspaper on our block. After one issue “The Broxton Blab” fizzled, but my dream of being a writer lasted for the rest of my life.  When I was in high school in the late fifties I saw “Raisin in the Sun” at the Karamu House in Cleveland and it had a profound effect on me in that it was the first time I understood the power of art. 
 
 

PageOneLit.com: Why do you write? 
 

Jean Davies Okimoto: I think writing is one way I metabolize strong emotions and process the world.  Isak Dinesen said, “any sorrow can be borne if you put it to story.”  I’ve had a dual career both as a psychotherapist and a writer and I often joked that in my novels, unlike my work as a therapist, I could always guarantee people a happy ending. 
 
 

PageOneLit.com: Briefly explain your new multi-award winning novel The Love Ceiling. This book is described as a "A coming of Age Novel for women over 50...60...70...80...90...!" Explain 
 

Jean Davies Okimoto: The major theme of The Love Ceiling is the pull many women feel between family and creative self-expression.  It tells the story of sixty-four year old Anne Kuroda Duppstaad, who after the death of her mother,  confronts the toxic legacy of her father, a famous artist and cruel narcissist, to become an artist in her own right.

Coming of age is a phase usually associated with late adolescence or young adulthood involving one’s identity and psychological growth.  Using the phrase in connection with older readers relates to the idea that far into adulthood it’s still possible to overcome obstacles and pursue our dreams. 
 
 

PageOneLit.com: Who is Anne Kuroda Duppstaad ? Explain this woman's challenges with her father, husband and daughter. 
 

Jean Davies Okimoto: Annie is a talented woman in her sixties who has dreamed of being an artist her whole life but has never had the courage and confidence to work at art in a serious way.  She is the daughter of Akiko Kuroda Gunther, a second generation Japanese American and Alexander Gunther a famous artist.  Annie’s father is narcissistic and sometimes sadistic and Annie’s lack of belief in her own ability is due in large part to the cruel and dismissive way he treated her.

Annie has had a long and happy marriage to Jack Duppstaad, a hematologist in academic medicine in his seventies, who struggles with retirement.  They’ve had a very traditional marriage with each partner in traditional male-female roles.  They have two grown children, and the story of Cass, their thirty-two year old daughter, as she faces a failed relationship is woven throughout the novel with Annie’s story.

After the death of her mother Akiko, Annie faces her own mortality and decides to pursue art in a serious way.  The challenge she faces is to overcome all the self-doubt she has internalized her whole life--the toxic legacy of her father, and to change the dynamics of her traditional marriage with Jack so she can carve out the time and space to pursue her work as an artist.  When Cass, her daughter, suffers a serious depression, Annie is faced with putting her own dreams on the back burner so she can help her daughter. 
 
 
 

PageOneLit.com:  Anne journeys from bitterness to acceptance - Explain. 
 

Jean Davies Okimoto: The biggest factor in helping Annie honor her own gift as an artist is the relationship she has with ninety-year old Martha Jane Morrison and Fred Weiss, who is in his eighties.  Three of the most important things one human being can give another are understanding, acceptance, and encouragement–all of which Annie receives from these elders.  The relationships with Martha Jane and Fred help her to value herself, not only so she can pursue art and change the dynamic in her marriage–but eventually so she can set limits with her father.  Once she draws a line with her father, it helps her be less resentful of him. Believing in her gift, understanding she owns it and it will always be there, even at those times when she needs to put her art aside to meet the needs of her family, gives her the patience and grace to honor both.  
 

PageOneLit.com: “There is a glass ceiling for women. . .and it’s made out of the people we love.”- Explain. 
 

Jean Davies Okimoto: The glass ceiling implies that people are limited in how much they can achieve in their careers because of discrimination against them on the basis of gender or race, but the ceiling is invisible or “glass” because there are no longer laws that discriminate.  The concept of the “love ceiling” means that because women choose to meet the needs of their loved ones there may be times when they have to invest less time in their careers outside the home and are therefore limiting what they might be able to achieve in those careers.  For me personally, there isn’t anything more satisfying than the relationships I have with the people I love, but I think the concept of “the love ceiling” has validity and it will be up to readers to decide if they think this is something negative or not. 
 

PageOneLit.com: What do you hope to achieve with The Love Ceiling.?

Jean Davies Okimoto: My hope is that readers will be entertained; that the novel will bring enjoyment, perhaps provoke thought, and wherever possible touch the heart.  
 

PageOneLit.com: What was the last book you read?  

Jean Davies Okimoto: Thousand Splendid Suns   
 

PageOneLit.com:   What's next? 
 

Jean Davies Okimoto: The Love Ceiling is the first book in a trilogy all intended for older readers; I’m now working on the second book in the trilogy, where ninety-year old Martha Jane Morrison also appears. 
 
 

PageOneLit.com:   Do you have any hobbies? What are they? How do they enhance your writing? 
 

Jean Davies Okimoto: I love to read, go for walks with the dog, kayak, and watch the birds that come to the bird feeder and the deer that come out of the woods near our house.  Except for when our children and grandchildren visit, which I love–it’s a quiet life now that I’ve retired from my practice as a psychotherapist and there is more time to read and reflect which I think enhances my writing.