Katie Yamasaki is an award winning picture book author/illustrator and muralist. She has painted over 90 walls around the world, exploring local stories of identity and social justice. Her picture book work explores similar themes for young readers. Her titles include: Shapes, Lines, and Light: My Grandfather’s American Journey;  Dad Bakes; Everything Naomi Loved; When the Cousins Came; God’s Big Plan; Fish for Jimmy, and most recently Place Hand Here. 

Yamasaki focuses much of her work in partnership with communities impacted by incarceration. The murals and books (Place Hand Here; Dad Bakes; Shapes, Lines, and Light; Fish for Jimmy) that have come from these explorations and partnerships encourage the viewer/reader to think beyond the binary of good and bad when considering the life of another. 

Yamasaki’s greatest hope is that her work will shine a light on communities and individuals who have been pushed to the margins of society, so that we might all be able to see one another more clearly and completely.  

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, 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 NYC, where she served on the faculty for several years. Currently, she helps to run an expressive arts program at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a maximum security women’s prison in Upstate New York.  Yamasaki worked for 14 years as a public school Preschool, 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.

You can explore more of Yamasaki’s work on her website, at www.katieyamasaki.com or on her Instagram page, @katieyamasaki.