Young adult novelist Zoe Hana Mikuta leads off the Washington State University’s Visiting Writers Series, Sept. 22 at 6:30 p.m. in person in Pullman at the Elson S. Floyd Cultural Center, simulcast on YouTube Live. The event is free and open to the public.
Mikuta, a student at the University of Washington in Seattle, just released her debut novel, “Gearbreakers,” published by Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan. She grew up in Boulder, Colorado, where she developed a deep love of Muay Thai kickboxing and writing fiction. She is presently finishing her studies in creative writing and the history of religion, a subject that informs her stories. On her website, Mikuta says she “enjoys writing about deteriorating worlds inhabited by characters with bad tempers, skewed morals, and big hearts.”
She recently sold the movie rights to “Gearbreakers.” At the age of 19, she won a two-book publishing deal, which includes the forthcoming sequel to “Gearbreakers.” In an essay for a UW creative writing class, Mikuta wrote: “I write about queer, half-white girls and I kill off their families for the drama of it all. I make them fight robots, because it’s thrilling, and I make them fall in love to give them something to fight for.”
The WSU Visiting Writers Series is conducted with support from several collaborators and sponsors including ASWSU, the WSU undergraduate literary magazine Landescapes, the WSU Vancouver Department of English, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, the Academic Outreach and Innovation, the Elson S. Floyd Cultural Center, and the WSU Common Reading Program.
For more information please contact DJ Lee at deblee@wsu.edu, Cameron McGill at cameron.mcgill@wsu.edu, or visit the WSU Visiting Writers Series website.
