About the Author
Karen Hill Anton is a writer, columnist, consultant and coach.
For more than fifteen years, Karen Hill Anton wrote the popular column “Crossing Cultures” for the Japan Times. Her long-running column “Another Look” for Chunichi Shimbun, invited its Japanese readers to translate it, and often more than 100 translations were submitted for each column. Additionally, she wrote a bi-monthly opinion essay for “Shukan ST” a publication directed at Japanese studying English.
Beginning in 2000, Karen consulted and managed employee development programs for global corporations in Japan, including Citibank, Eli Lilly, Shinsei Bank, and JP Morgan, among others.
She has coached senior executives in the finance, pharmaceuticals and software industries. Karen has been especially successful in guiding Japanese women seeking to change careers, make significant lifestyle alterations, as well as re-enter the workforce after maternity leave.
Karen was invited to serve on the Internationalization and Society Advisory Council of Prime Ministers Keizō Obuchi and Ryutaro Hashimoto. She is Emerita: Board of Governors, Temple University, Japan Campus, Shizuoka Human Rights Association, the Jun Ashida Educational Foundation Committee, and is an Allman Fellow and Freeman Foundation Fellow.
She is regularly invited to speak to international, civic and educational organizations. Most recently, she received a standing ovation as a Plenary Speaker at the JALT22 (Japan Association of Language Teachers) conference in Fukuoka.
She has presented workshops and seminars on the craft of memoir writing for the Japan Writers’ Conference, and the Society of Writers, Editors, and Translators.
Her memoir, The View From Breast Pocket Mountain, has been widely and warmly received by readers. The memoir is the Grand Prize Winner of the 2022 Memoir Prize for Books, 2021 B.R.A.G Medallion, and the 2020 SPR Book Awards Gold Prize.
A Thousand Graces is her first novel.
Originally from New York City, Karen has made her home with her husband William Anton in the rural province of Shizuoka, Japan, since 1975.