Eve Kushner

Eve Kushner is a writer in Berkeley, California. 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.

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).

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.

This exploration builds on Kanji Curiosity, the weekly kanji blog she wrote for JapanesePod101.com from 2007 through 2010. The "Japan Times" praised that blog as "informative and entertaining." Her Japan-related writing has also appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, East Bay Monthly, East Bay Express, and Japanophile, among other places. She has spoken about her love of kanji several times on the NPR-affiliated radio show "The World in Words" and has appeared on the NBC talk show Asian Pacific America and on a reality show on TV Tokyo (again because of her love of kanji).