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Dwight Okita From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dwight Okita (born 1958) is a Japanese American novelist and poet based in Chicago.

Personal Life Dwight Okita was born in Chicago to Fred Yoshio Okita who was a school teacher and armchair philosopher, and Patsy Takeyo Okita who was a homemaker and also worked in retail part-time. His older brother Clyde Okita is a photographer. Dwight is a third-generation Japanese American.

He started out as a poet, then became a playwright, now focuses on creating trippy, speculative books as a novelist. A proud gay man, he appeared in the WTTW documentary "Out & Proud in Chicago." He has worked for various nonprofits, and often posts on Facebook advocating for a future without guns. He is a practicing Nichiren Buddhist with the SGI (Soka Gakkai International), an international organization working for a more peaceful, enlightened world through individual happiness. Okita was once on the cover of the Kellogg's Corn Flakes box in his twenties, dressed as a chef pouring milk over a bowl of cereal.

Poetry His poem "In Response to Executive Order 9066 " is one of the most reprinted poems on the topic of the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. It appears in countless textbooks and anthologies. Another of his poem, "Notes for a Poem on Being Asian American," has appeared in the Norton Introduction to Literature. Tia Chucha Press published his poetry book CROSSING WITH THE LIGHT in 1992.

Novels Okita's first novel, THE PROSPECT OF MY ARRIVAL (self-published through CreateSpace), was a top three finalist out of 5,000 entries in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards in 2008. The speculative, soft sci-fi novel is about a human embryo which is allowed to preview the world before deciding whether to be born. Film companies regularly flirt with the book's cinematic possibilities. The author's second novel, THE HOPE STORE, is about the first store in the world to sell hope over the counter. As of this writing, the author is working on a reincarnation novel called EVERY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE which also touches on the AIDS crisis and the gun violence epidemic. The author is represented in Los Angeles by Affirmative Entertainment, which works to create movie projects from his novels.

Stage Plays The author has also written some stage plays including: The Rainy Season (Zebra Crossing Theatre/North Avenue Productions), Richard Speck (American Blues Theatre), as well as a collaborative work entitled The Radiance of A Thousand Suns (Bailiwick Repertory, co-written with Anne V. McGravie, Nicholas Patricca and David Zak) for which the creators received a Joseph Jefferson Citation for Outstanding New Work. The play explored the dropping of the atomic bomb and coincided with that event's 50th anniversary. Okita was selected to participate in the HBO New Writers Project, which showcased the scripts of writers of color to industry professionals in Hollywood.

Other Media Okita has appeared on WBEZ radio, the Chicago affiliate of NPR. For the ongoing series "Chicago Matters," he read two essays. One called "Serotonin City" which dealt with his experience with mood swings, and "Cover Boy" which dealt with his appearance on the cover of the Kellogg's Corn Flakes box in his early twenties. Okita also was chosen by Ira Glass to read poems on his show "This American Life" in its early days.

He and video director Marsha V. Morgan created a buzz in 1988 with the creation of the poetry video "Crossing with the Light," also the title poem of his poetry book. One of the first poetry videos, it was created for debut on Chicago Access Network. The video was featured in articles in the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Reader, on Fox TV news, on National Public Radio, and other outlets. The video was also selected for broadcast on the public TV show "Image Union" for WTTW.

You can learn more about Dwight Okita's work and life at: www.DwightOkita.com

Bibliography[edit]

Okita's Books[edit] Crossing with the Light. (Tia Chucha Press, 1992). Poetry. The Prospect of My Arrival. (CreateSpace, 2011). Novel. The Hope Store. (Not yet published). Novel. Every Time We Say Goodbye (Work in progress). Novel. The Rainy Season (in ASIAN AMERICAN DRAMA, Applause Books, 2000). Play. The Radiance of a Thousand Suns (collaboration with Anne V. McGravie, Nicholas Patricca and David Zak, Dramatic Publishing, 2006). Play.

Okita's Poetry Reprinted in Textbooks & Anthologies[edit] "Notes for a Poem on Being Asian American" in both THE NORTON INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE, and THE NORTON INTRODUCTION TO POETRY. "In Response to Executive Order 9066" in the anthology BREAKING SILENCE published by Greenfield Review Press. This publisher was the very first publisher of this poem. Other poetry reprints appear in books including PREMONITIONS (Kaya Press), UNSETTLING AMERICA (Penguin), and CELEBRATE AMERICA IN POETRY AND ART (Hyperion/Smithsonian).

Publicity Hyphen Magazine 1993, issue 7 -- Cover story "Smuggling Poetry into the Theatre."

New City Newspaper, 1993-- Cover story on the stage play "The Salad Bowl Dance."

Live of Notable Asian Americans: Authors and Education, published by Chelsea House, 1996.

Nit & Wit Magazine -- Three-page poetry and photo spread of Okita's early work.

Links Dwight Okita's website for Writing & Web Design http://www.DwightOkita.com