Yumi Sakugawa

Yumi Sakugawa is a comic artist based in California. Her work has been published online, in feminist magazines and in book form. Sakugawa also edits a blog about wellness.[1] She was nominated for an Ignatz Award in 2014 for her mini comic, Never Forgets.[2]

Yumi Sakugawa
Yumi Sakagawa at Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, April 2017
Yumi Sakagawa at Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, April 2017
BornOrange County, California
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of California, Los Angeles
GenreComics

Biography

Sakugawa was born in Orange, growing up in Anaheim Hills.[3] Sakugawa had always loved drawing and writing, but she wasn't sure how to use both until in college, she started creating comics.[4] She attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she was a part of the largest & longest running Asian-American Theatre Company in the United States; LCC Theatre Company.[5] She graduated in 2007.[6]

Sakugawa has stated that she prefers to write her ideas first, illustrating them after she has a clear sense of the narrative.[7] Her influences include Haruki Murakami, Aimee Bender, Hellen Jo, and Adrian Tomine, among others.[3] She is a self-professed Sailor Moon fan and has cited Noriko's Dinner Table as one of her favorite films.[8]

Her short comic “Mundane Fortunes for the Next Ten Billion Years” was selected as a Notable Comic of 2012 by the Best American Comics series editors.[9]

Reviews of her 2014 book, I Think I Am In Friend Love With You, have been favorable and her art and writing has been called "eerie and wondrous" by Juxtapoz.[10]

Her book, Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One With the Universe, explores the ideas of mindfulness and meditation, making the abstract into the concrete and also with drawings that are "curious, mischievous, ready to engage."[1] She created the book in order to develop a kind of self-help book she had been unable to find on her own: one which wasn't simply written out or full of lists.[6] She decided to use her "love for creating visual stories" in order to make a new kind of self-help guide.[6] Your Illustrated Guide was selected by NPR's Book Concierge as one of "2014's Great Reads".[11]

Yumi Sakugawa, photographed at the LA Zine Fest, 2013

She was a regular comic contributor to the website, WonderHowTo.[12]

She was one of the participating artists in the Giant Robot Biennale 4 which will be featured at the Japanese American National Museum between October 2015 and January 2016.[13]

Bibliography

Books
  • I Think I am in Friend-Love With You. Avon, Massachusetts: Adams Media. 2014. ISBN 9781440573026.
  • Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One With the Universe. Avon, Massachusetts: Adams Media. 2014. ISBN 9781440582639.
  • There Is No Right Way to Meditate: And Other Lessons. Avon, Massachusetts: Adams Media. 2015. ISBN 9781440592522.
  • The Little Book of Life Hacks: How to Make Your Life Happier, Healthier, and More Beautiful. St. Martin's Press. 2017.[14]

Selected short stories and minicomics
  • A Special Message For You Hand-Delivered To You From The Universe. 2012. (Self-published; compilation of comics between 2010 and 2012)
  • Intergalactic Telepathic Pen Pal and Other Super-Short Stories. 2012. (Self-published; compilation of comics between 2011 and 2012)
  • Claudia Kishi: My Asian-American Female Role Model of the 90's. 2012. (Self-published; originally posted online on Sadie Magazine[15])
  • Moon Between the Mountains. 2013. (Self-published; originally posted online on The Rumpus[16])
  • Never Forgets. 2014. (Self-published)
  • Bird Girl and Fox Girl. Sparkplug Books. 2014.
  • Transcendent Exercises for the Uninspired Artist. 2014. (Self-published)
  • Ikebana. Retrofit Comics. 2015.
  • Fashion Forecasts. 2016. (Self-published; a limited run for Crosslines, a SmithsonianAPA event in Washington, D.C.)

References
  1. Brooks, Katherine (12 August 2015). "12 Books That Will Lift You Up When You Are Down". Huffington Post. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  2. Akhtar, Zainab (8 September 2014). "For One Week Only: Read Yumi Sakugawa's Fantastic 'Never Forgets' For Free". Comics Alliance. Archived from the original on 8 September 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  3. Murillo, Aimee (19 December 2014). "Magical Realism, Comics and Friend-Love: The Artwork of Yumi Sakugawa". OC Weekly. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  4. Chow, Kat (4 January 2014). "Comic Artist Yumi Sakugawa On Friend-Love, Identity And Art". Code Switch (NPR). Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  5. "LCC Theatre Company at UCLA". lcctheatre.com.
  6. Woods, Wes (6 October 2014). "Comic Book Artist Yumi Sakugawa Provides Self-Help In Comic Book Form". Los Angeles Daily News. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  7. Cills, Hazel (January 2013). "We're In 'Friend-Love' With Comic Artist Yumi Sakugawa". Paper. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  8. Book, The Raw. "Yumi Sakagawa | The Raw Book". Retrieved 2015-09-08.
  9. "Yumi Sakugawa | DeFiore and Company". www.defioreandco.com. Retrieved 2015-09-08.
  10. Shafaghi, Lalé (12 March 2014). "We Are In Friend Love With Yumi Sakugawa". Juxtapoz. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  11. "Best Books of 2014" NPR Books (December 3, 2014). Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  12. "Yumi Sakugawa's Profile « Wonder How To". WonderHowTo. Retrieved 2015-09-08.
  13. "Giant Robot Biennale 4 Artist List and Official Press Release".
  14. Macmillan. "The Little Book of Life Hacks | Yumi Sakugawa | Macmillan". Macmillan. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
  15. "Claudia Kishi: My Asian-American Female Role Model Of The '90s".
  16. "Saturday Rumpus Comic: Moon Between The Mountains". 16 February 2013. Retrieved 2015-09-08.
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