
Leza Lowitz
Leza Lowitz is a native Californian who lives in Tokyo, where she writes and runs a yoga studio. She's been bringing together the worlds of writing and spirituality for over two decades, charting her quest in 18 books across genres--Young Adult fiction, memoir, poetry, fiction, and co-translation. (Her book, "Yoga Poems: Lines to Unfold By" is an evergreen best-seller). She was a regular columnist for the Asahi Evening News, and has written for the Japan Times, the New York Times online, the Huffington Post, NPR's "Sound of Writing," NHK Radio Japan, KQED Radio's "Pacific Time," Asahi Weekly, Shambhala Sun, Yoga Journal, Yoga Journal Japan, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Oakland Tribune, and many more. In the early 1990s, she taught writing and literature at the University of Tokyo.
Her awards include the APALA Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature, a PEN Syndicated Fiction Award, the PEN Josephine Miles Award for Poetry, grants from the NEA, NEH, and the California Arts Council, the U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission Award from Columbia University for the Translation of Japanese Literature, and the Benjamin Franklin Award for Editorial Excellence. She often writes with her husband, the Middle Grade novelist Shogo Oketani.
Building a bridge from East to West, they've collaborated on a book about kanji for tattoos, a collection of poetry by a pacifist Japanese soldier, and a Young Adult trilogy about a young female ninja's quest to save her ancestral land. Other couples finish each other's sentences. They finish each other's books.
Titles by Author
Here Comes The Sun
by Leza Lowitz
At 44, a Berkeley-raised American woman teaching yoga in Japan seeks to adopt—a story of triumphant love for families everywhere.
Sacred Sanskrit Words
by Leza Lowitz
A simple guide to over 160 key spiritual concepts behind yoga and other branches of Eastern wisdom.
Kanji Box
by Shogo Oketani & Leza Lowitz
Japanese characters served up with histories and cultural clues to help you decorate your skin/body/life with just the right word!
A Long Rainy Season
by Leza Lowitz
The landmark anthology of contemporary Japanese women's poetry in English translation.
Designing with Kanji
by Shogo Oketani & Leza Lowitz
Japanese words in a fun resource for designers, artists, and tattooers.
Yoga Heart
by Leza Lowitz
The much-anticipated follow-up to the author's highly popular Yoga Poems: Lines to Unfold By.