Kyoko Mori was born and raised in Kobe, Japan and moved to the United States as a teenager. Now a professor of Creative Writing, she has published her poetry and short stories in leading magazines such as The Kenyon Review, The Apalachee Quarterly, and Beloit Poetry Journal. She is the author of two novels for young readers, One Bird and Shizuko’s Daughter, which was chosen as a Best Young Children’s Book by The New York Times. She has also written two memoirs for adults, Polite Lies and The Dream of Water.