Topic
How living with a Japanese family sparked other global experiences and resulted in my own vision to raise a global family.
Author Bio
Kathryn Graven is a writer, mixed-media artist, musician and lifelong sewer. Originally from Minnesota, Kathryn’s world opened up in 1977 when she lived in Japan as a high school exchange student for a year. She graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in History and a master’s degree in East Asian Studies. She graduated from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in New York. Her journalism career began in Tokyo a the ABC News Bureau, and later she became a Tokyo Correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. For a mid-career adjustment, Kathryn turned to studying painting and abstract art at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She shows her artwork in monthly open studios and participates in solo and group art events. Kathryn lives with her husband in Boston, and is mother to their two grown sons. During the summer, she lives, gardens and makes delicious jams and irresistible pickles on a small island in Maine. “Memoirs of a Mask Maker” is her first book.
About the Book
“Memoirs of a Mask Maker” is the moving story of how a five-year-old girl navigates deep loss after a tragic car accident leaves her motherless. The book honors the strong women , a grandmother, a neighbor and a pharmacist in Japan, that give her hope, and chronicles the global adventures that sparked lasting connections. During the scary days of the pandemic, Kathryn sewed hundreds of colorful masks, signing each with a note of encouragement. Making masks offered her the chance to reflect on how she learned to tend grief and reclaim joy in order to stitch together a beautiful life.