Judith Turner-Yamamoto

Poet, Fiction Writer

CINCINNATI, OH
Ohio US
Email: 
judith@turneryamamoto.com
Website: 
www.turneryamamoto.com
Twitter/X: 
@jturneryamamoto

Author's Bio

Judith Turner-Yamamoto’s debut novel LOVING THE DEAD AND GONE, a Mariel Hemingway Book Club selection, won the 2023 Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal in Southern Regional Fiction. The North Carolina Society of Historians recognized Loving the Dead and Gone with the 2023 Historical Novel Award. The book was shortlisted for the 2023 UC-Berkeley Eric Hoffer Book Awards Grand Prize, where it was also an honorable mention in General Fiction and finalist for the Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award for Debut Fiction. Herpublications include StorySOUTH, Mississippi Review, Deep South, and American Literary Review, and many anthologies. Judith’s awards include two Virginia Arts Commission fellowships, an Ohio Arts Council fellowship, the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize, the Washington Prize for Fiction, and the Virginia Screenwriting Award. Her articles have appeared in Elle, Travel & Leisure, AAPR/The Ethel, and the Los Angeles Times, and her interviews have aired on NPR affiliate WVXU. A Kentucky Humanities Speakers Bureau scholar, Judith, a frequent presenter at conferences and book festivals, has taught fiction and spoken at writing conferences, including the Chautauqua Writers’ Center, Chautauqua Institution, the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, and the Writers’ Center, Bethesda, Maryland. She lives on the Kentucky/Ohio border where her love of travel and place continues to inspire her writing.

Writers Retreats: 
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts

Publications & Prizes

Fiction

Anthologies:
Best New Poets 2005 (University of Virginia Press, 2018)
,
Fish Anthology 2016 (Fish Publishing, 2016)
,
Walking the Edge: A Southern Gothic Anthology, edited by Dororthy Allison (Twisted Road Publications, 2016)
,
Double Lives, Reinvention, and Those We Leave Behind (Wising Up Press, 2009)
,
Generation to Generation (Papier Mache Press, 1998)
,
Grow Old Along With Me (Papier Mache Press, 1996)
,
Farm Wives and Other Iowa Stories (Mid-Prairie Books, 1995)
Books:
Loving the Dead and Gone (Regal House Publishing, 2022)
,
Neighbors (Crack the Spine, 2020)
,
Gravity Dancers (Paycock Press, 2009)
Journals:
American Literary Review
,
Ballyhoo Stories
,
First for Women
,
Mississippi Review
,
Parting Gifts
,
Potomac Review
,
Short Fiction By Women
,
Snake Nation Review
,
Washington Review

Poetry

Book:
Show Us Your Papers (Main Street Rag Publishing Company, 2020)
Journals:
Dash Literary Journal
,
Under the Gum Tree
Prizes won: 

Selected Awards and Honors

2023 Independent Publisher Book Awards, South: Best Regional Fiction

2023 North Carolina Society of Historians, Historical Novel Award

2023 Eric Hoffer Book Awards: Grand Prize Short List; First Horizon Award for Debut Fiction Finalist; General Fiction Honorable Mention

2023 Mariel Hemingway’s Book Club Pick

2020 Petrichor Prize, Regal House Publishing, Finalist and novel publication fall 2022

2018 Artistic Excellence Award, Ohio Arts Council

2018 Under the Gum Tree Nonfiction Prize, second place

2018, Bridport Prize for the Short Story, Short List

2017 The Story Project, Maryland Transit Authority, Purple Line

2016 Writer in Residence, Cincinnati Public Library Foundation, Finalist

2007 Arlington County, VA, winner, “Moving Words” Poetry Competition

2003 artist residency, Fundacíon Valparaiso, Mojacar, Spain

2003 residency fellowship, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts

2002-2003 Individual Artist Fellowship in Fiction, Virginia Commission on the Arts

2002 StoryQuarterly Scholar, Sewanee Writers’ Conference

2000 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize

1999 Virginia Governor’s Screenwriting Award

1997-98 Individual Artist Fellowship in Fiction, Virginia Commission on the Arts

1997 Writer in Residence, The Chautauqua Institution

1989 Washington Prize for Fiction

1988 Fellow, Duke University Writers’ Conference

1988, Jenny McKean Moore Fellow, George Washington University

Awards Finalist

2023 Bedford Short Story Prize, 2023 Lit/South Awards, 2022 Randall Jarrell Poetry Prize, 2021Doris Betts Fiction Prize, 2018 Bridport Prize for the Short Story, 2016 Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize, 2016 Fish Publishing International Short Story Prize, 2016 Atlanta Review International Poetry Competition; 2015 Eludia Award, Sowilo Press; 2011 Manchester Fiction Prize; 2009 Bridport Prize for the Short Story; 1998 Governor’s Screenwriting Award; 1998 James Fellowship for the Novel in Progress, The Heekin Group Foundation; 1997 Tara Fellowship in Short Fiction, 1996 Sundance Institute Screenwriters Workshop; 1994 H.E. Francis Award, Ruth Hindman Foundation; 1992 Takeshi Kaiko Award; Finalist, Georgetown Poetry and Prose 1988 Literary Competition.

 

Watch

Personal Favorites

Favorite authors: 
Alice Munro, Elizabeth Strout, Mary Gordon, Nicole Strauss
What I'm reading now: 
Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro, TAMP by Daniel Loving

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
English American
Prefers to work with: 
Adults
Fluent in: 
English
Born in: 
Asheboro, NC
North Carolina
Raised in: 
Asheboro, NC
North Carolina
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Dec 21, 2023