Eve Kushner, Freelance Writer

Eve Kushner lives in Berkeley, California, with her husband and their dogs, Ria and Kanji.

Of Note

On four occasions, NPR/PRI has aired parts of an interview with Eve.

March 2009: Eve was featured in a World in Words podcast, talking at length about her love of kanji, as well as her undying passion for author Haruki Murakami.

November 5, 2008: Eve talked about Obama, Japan, in the Nov. 5 geography quiz. She made the same comments (but more of them) two weeks earlier in a podcast called “The World in Words." They did an A-Z of the elections. The edition at the link covers N–Z. Eve's segment happened at the letter O (O for Obama), 5 or 6 mins. into the podcast. On March 15, 2009, Red Room (a website that promotes authors and connects them with readers) named this "Best Podcast" of the week.

October 30, 2008: In a story about author Haruki Murakami's global appeal, Eve spoke for a few minutes. Eve is featured on Red Room, a site that showcases authors. In March 2009, Red Room chose Eve's Obama podcast as "Best Podcast." And in January 2008, Red Room gave the "Best Review" designation to Eve's review of Midori by Moonlight, a novel by Wendy Tokunaga.

In December 2007, Eve was quoted in a Newsweek article about Hollywood's treatment of unplanned pregnancy in film.

In October 2007, the Japan Times called Kanji Curiosity (Eve's kanji blog) "informative and entertaining."

Eve is listed in Contemporary Authors, Who's Who in America, Who's Who of American Women, and Who's Who of Emerging Leaders. She is also a member of the National Association of Professional Women.

Starting in 1991, Eve worked as a freelance editor for many presses, including Jossey-Bass Publishers and the University of California Press. That continued until 1999, when Eve decided to devote herself entirely to writing.

She now writes a weekly blog about kanji for JapanesePod101.com. She also contributes regularly to the San Francisco Chronicle and the East Bay Monthly. From 2006 through 2008, she wrote a monthly column in Builder/Architect magazine on achieving creative freedom in architecture.

In 2002, after realizing that she loves interviewing people about matters of utmost importance to them, she began profiling people with fascinating niches—individuals who center their lives around a passion and who stay the course, no matter what. She has published portraits of dozens of such people, often in front-page spreads in the San Francisco Chronicle.

After she profiled visionary architect Dan Liebermann for the Chronicle in 2003, Eve started writing Wild Buildings, Wild Lives: How Visionary Architects Think, Create, and Live. This unpublished book explores the common traits that enable visionary architects to live in a passionate, fulfilling, creative way—the way many of us would live, if only we knew how.

That same year, she interviewed architect Eugene Tsui as part of a documentary by Laurent LeGall. In 2004, Eve gave two well-received speeches about Wild Buildings, Wild Lives, one at Eco Wave (a conference about environmentally friendly architecture) and the other at the San Francisco Institute of Architecture.

About Eve Kushner

Of Note