Author: Yuko Taniguchi

Yuko Taniguchi earned an M.F.A. at the University of Minnesota. Her first volume of poetry, Foreign Wife Elegy, was published in 2004, and her first novel, The Ocean in the Closet, in 2007, both by Coffee House Press. Some of her awards include finalist for The Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the Kiriyama Prize Notable Book, the Gustavus Myers Center Outstanding Book Award Advancing Human Rights, and the McKnight Artist Fellowship for Writers.  Taniguchi is a writing faculty at the University of Minnesota Rochester. She is also a founding faculty for Mayo Clinic Humanities in Medicine Arts at the Bedside-Creative Writing Program, conducting a variety of writing workshops and seminars for patients, family and healthcare professionals at Mayo Clinic since 2004. Taniguchi is a recipient of a 2016 Bush Fellowship and an artist in residence in the Department of Medicine at University of Minnesota and Weisman Art Museum for the project, Target Studio for Creative Collaboration, exploring the impact of the creative process on adolescents facing mental health challenges and how creative work can make the interpersonal communication between caregivers and patients more meaningful.