Girl in a Box: A Novel

The tangled life of the Japanese poet Yosano Akiko

In early twentieth century Japan, women have few rights. Yet one precocious poet—a brooding daughter, locked in her room at night by protective parents—runs away from home to live a life of her choosing. She falls in love with a fellow poet and follows him across Siberia to Paris, where they witness the last days of the Belle Époque. She perseveres through poverty, back-to-back pregnancies, infidelity, earthquake, and fire, to become a name every Japanese schoolchild knows today as a pioneering feminist poet and the first person to translate the classical Tale of Genji into modern Japanese. In her single-minded dedication to her art, she inflicts wounds on a daughter that echo from her own childhood. She sets out to make amends, knowing it may be too late. Based on the life of poet Yosano Akiko (1878-1942) and filled with original translations of her poetry, Girl in a Box will ignite the discussion about the female artist’s challenge to create while juggling family, career, and personal freedom. Historical fiction at its best.

About Jean Gordon Kocienda

A former intelligence officer and Silicon Valley geopolitical analyst, Jean Gordon Kocienda is now focused on writing and volunteering with refugee families in the Bay Area. Jean holds a B.A. in English Literature (Colgate University) and M.A. in International Affairs (George Washington University). Currently nestled in the redwoods of Marin County with her husband and cats, she has lived in Japan and speaks Japanese. She is President of the California Writers Club Marin Chapter.

Praise for Girl in a Box: A Novel

I absolutely loved Girl in a Box! I didn’t know anything about Yosano Akiko beforehand, and I was surprised to find out what a rebellious woman she was: so intelligent, so gifted, so amazingly prolific, and so intriguingly contradictory. I adore the poetry she wrote and that Jean translated, and I can only imagine how revolutionary such poetry, written by a woman, had been at the time. It still feels fresh and delicious. The book vividly describes the literary circles of Japan in the early years of the 20th century and their bohemian and unconventional, even rebellious way of life. The idea that poetry could be a revolutionary means to change society feels fresh and even comforting from the perspective of today; to write erotic poems as a woman at that time must have been truly revolutionary, just as her anti-war poems. Jean has done a massive amount of research, amalgamated and submerged into novel form. This book is a page-turner – it was pure delight to absorb myself in the life of this extraordinary woman and poet. I could spend my life reading books like this: well-researched, page-turning stories about passionate, gifted, trailblazing, controversial women of history we have forgotten or didn't even know about.

— Mia Kankimäki, bestselling author of The Women I Think About at Night and Things that Make One’s Heart Beat Faster

“In a series of sharply observed scenes, Jean Gordon Kocienda gives us Yosano Akiko whole: girl, woman, writer, wife, mother, widow. A convincing and compulsively readable portrait.”

— Gaye Rowley, author of Yosano Akiko and The Tale of Genji

“Magnificently researched,  Girl in a Box  recounts the story of a budding poet who defied convention charting her path to become an artist. Lyrical prose and scrupulous detail make Jean Gordon Kocienda’s debut novel a winning read.”

— Joan Gelfand, author of the award-winning Outside Voices, a Memoir of the Berkeley Revolution