Karen Tei Yamashita lived for nine years in Brazil, the setting for her novels, Through the Arc of the Rain Forest, (winner of the American Book Award and The Janet Heidinger Kafka Award) and Brazil-Maru. Tropic of Orange, was a finalist for the Paterson Fiction Prize. Her mixed-genre book, Circle K Cycles, is based on her research of the Brazilian community in Japan. Currently, she teaches at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
