Katie Yamasaki

Katie Yamasaki is an award-winning picture book author/illustrator and muralist. Over the past 25 years, she has painted over 90 walls around the world, exploring local stories of identity and social justice. Her intersectional picture book work explores similar themes for young readers. Yamasaki is the author/illustrator of many books for young children, including: Dad Bakes, When the Cousins Came, Shapes, Lines and Light: My Grandfather’s American Journey, Fish for Jimmy, Place Hand Here, Everything Naomi Loved, Mural Island, Ripples, and most recently, Invisible Crown(Norton Young Readers, Feb, 2027).

Yamasaki’s books have received numerous awards and starred reviews and appeared on many “Best of __” lists, including Kirkus, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Bank Street, Junior Library Guild, and the New York Public Library.  Her book and mural work has been covered by and featured at The New York Times, Democracy Now!, NBC Asian America, The Detroit Free Press, The Socialist Worker, Real Simple Magazine, New York1 , Time Out New York, Free Speech TV, Booklist, NHK Global Japanese Network and Le Monde (France). Yamasaki has presented her work at institutions across the country including The Brooklyn Museum, Northwestern University, The Detroit Institute of Arts, The Seattle Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, The Japanese American National Museum, the DC Public Library, and the New York Public Library. 

Yamasaki earned her BA from Earlham College and her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where she served on the faculty for several years. Currently, she co-facilitates an expressive arts program at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility and Taconic Correctional Facility,  one maximum and one medium security women’s prison in Upstate New York. Yamasaki has facilitated participatory art projects and programs in carceral facilities for the past 15 years and some of her children’s book work centers these impacted communities.  Yamasaki lectures widely and creates public art activations at museums, universities, community centers, public libraries, and schools of all levels around the country.   Yamasaki worked for 14 years as a public school, Spanish and Art teacher in both the Detroit and NYC public schools, and was a teaching artist at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.

TOPICS: Art, Literacy