Eve Kushner is a writer in Berkeley, California, in the United States. In addition to placing 315 articles in 35 markets, she has published two books. Both are in their second printings. You can find out all about her and her work at www.evekushner.com. For reviews of her books and for interviews in various media, see the Press Coverage page (http://www.evekushner.com/writing/press-coverage).
Eve is now focusing exclusively on kanji, the most complicated script used in Japanese writing. In December 2011 she launched Joy o' Kanji (www.joyokanji.com), a lifelong project. She aims to write one essay about each of the Joyo kanji, the characters used in daily life in Japan. Readers can download these essays in PDF format for an extremely low price. With comprehensive information about every aspect of a character, as well as photos of kanji in real-life uses, these essays reveal the personalities of each kanji (the character of the characters!) as nothing ever has. The site also features photo albums of kanji in action, as well as plenty of free essays (particularly about radicals).
As you can tell from the title of her 2009 work "Crazy for Kanji: A Student's Guide to the Wonderful World of Japanese Characters" (Stone Bridge Press), Eve has a boundless passion for kanji. She has spoken about this several times on "The World in Words," a radio program by PRI, which is an NPR affiliate.
From 2007 through 2010 she wrote "Kanji Curiosity" essays for JapanesePod101.com (http://blogs.japanesepod101.com/blog/category/kanji-curiosity), a language-learning site based in Tokyo. The "Japan Times" praised these essays as "informative and entertaining."
With all of her writing about the Japanese language, Eve has tried to show that kanji can be charming, poetic, and fun, not the source of fear and loathing that people often make these characters out to be.
Although her focus is now monomaniacal, she spent years writing about architecture, books, food, local events, and people with unusual passions. She began her career with "Experiencing Abortion: A Weaving of Women's Words" (Harrington Park Press, now Taylor and Francis, 1997). Because of this book and because of a prominent article she wrote about abortion issues in Hollywood movies, she has been featured in "Newsweek" and on TVO, a Canadian public television program (http://www.tvo.org/TVO/WebObjects/TVO.woa?videoid%3F654099689001).
