Marie Mutsuki Mockett was born to an American father and Japanese mother. Her memoir, Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye, examines Japanese traditions for coping with grief and disaster against the backdrop of the 2011 Great East Earthquake in Japan and her family's Buddhist temple. Her memoir was a finalist for the PEN Open Book Award for 2016 and the Indies Choice Best Book for Adult Nonfiction for 2016. She lives in San Francisco.