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DESPERATELY SEEKING THE PERFECT PEACH: LOVE AND LOSS ON A FAMILY FARM
An interview with Christopher Kimball for Milk Street Radio, February 2, 2024
Golden Poppy Awards 2022 Finalist
November 28, 2023
We’re honored to announce that Secret Harvests is a finalist for the Golden Poppy Award in Nonfiction, which is nominated by and voted on by California booksellers highlighting the best of the best of California writers and illustrators! Congrats to everyone!
Must Read Books That Will Transform How You think About Food and the World
by Liza Greene, Food Tank, Fall 2023
Food Tank recommends 23 books that can broaden and deepen everyone’s understanding of food systems and the power of storytelling.
the Aunt whose existence was a secret
by Joe Mathews, August 2, 2023
“When I spoke with Masumoto recently, he talked about Sugimoto’s story, and the roles racism and discrimination against people with disabilities played in it. But we also talked about secrets, especially in families, and all that we miss when we keep them.”
On Difference and Diversity in ‘Secret Harvests’
by Rachel Lutwick-Deaner, April 24, 2023
She was treated as an outcast, just as her family was in the internment camp — “Marked as misfits in a wilderness.”
Fresno farmer reinterprets shame and disability in ‘Secret Harvests’
by Tomo Hirai, Nichi Bei Weekly, April 21, 2023
“On April 8, Masumoto and Wakida presented the book and the artwork featured within it at J-Sei in Emeryville, Calif. for the book’s “Northern California launch.” The discussion, moderated by former TV news anchor Wendy Tokuda, delved into the process of the book’s creation.”
California farmer recounts reunion with ‘lost’ aunt
by Sharon Song, KTVU Fox 2, May 3, 2023
“My goal, I think, especially as a storyteller, as a writer” says Masumoto, “ is to convey these emotions and the sense of history to others, but at the same time hopefully instill them to ask questions."
5 Questions with David Mas Masumoto
City Lights Live (City Lights Booksellers) banters with Masumoto in preparation for his online reading in April 2023
16 New Books for April
California Book Club publication, Alta Journal names Secret Harvest as one of the books they’ve got their eyes on in April!
Interview with David Mas Masumoto on Legacy
“I began this writing journey full of questions and unknowns. It’s the same way I farm—accepting the mystery of my work and open to learning.”
by Caroline Hatano for Civil Eats, March 22, 2023
STARRED REVIEW from Kirkus Review
“A simultaneously elegant and sharp-edged exploration of the hidden past.
Masumoto is a collector of ghosts, and he listens to them as he explores the Gila River Indian Community of Arizona, where his family was detained, and the hospital where his aunt was locked away. He even finds ghosts among the orchards and garden beds of his central California farm, a place jeopardized by water shortages and a warming climate. “We live in a constant blur,” he writes, joining themes of past and present.”
Foreword Reviews: Secret Harvests
“Paired with artist Patricia Wakida’s haunting illustrations, the book’s rich, lyrical language evokes both cultural eloquence and California’s seasonal beauty. Poignant and reflective, Secret Harvests is a family saga of quiet endurance and bittersweet triumphs.”
Meg Nola, Foreword Reviews, January/February 2023
A Valley family’s lost tale told through b&W BLOCK prints
by David Mas Masumoto. Fresno Bee, December 4, 2022
Shelf awareness Book Review: Secret Harvests
“Masumoto writes with an open vulnerability, intertwining what he can puzzle together of Shizuko's missing past with generations of their shared family's intimate experiences--of alienation, isolation, reunion.”
by Terry Hong, BookDragon for Shelf Awareness. January 8, 2023