Mariko Tamaki Books In Order

Publication Order of Lumberjanes Books

Publication Order of Wonder Woman (2016-) Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Mariko Tamaki

Mariko Tamaki, a Canadian, is a writer, activist, playwright, and a performer. Appearing throughout Canada and across the Unites States, she had appeared in many and various venues of festivals, tours, and with troupes in both countries. She has also appeared on television and radio.

A New York Times Bestselling writer, Ms. Tamaki has been recognized for her writing of comics and prose. She has been recognized and awarded with a multitude of nominations and honors. The Doug Wright, Ignatz, and Eisner Awards, the Caldecott Medal and Michael L. Printz Honors, are among them. She’s also been awarded the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book and the Gran Guinigi for Best Script.

Her writing reaches back to 2002 and some of her earliest publications are still in high demand and have been published in other languages. She has published stand alone novels, graphic novels, and has been in mainstream comic books and graphic novels for Marvel, DC Comics, Abrams, Dark Horse and Boom Studios. She has contributed to the character development and ongoing story lines for Batman, Spider-Man, Supergirl, and Harley Quinn.

Ms. Tamaki has the dubious distinction of being “Number One”, that is, she had the most challenged book of 2016, per the American Library Association. Her graphic novel, This One Summer, co-created by Ms. Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki was challenged for having LGTBQ content. The top five books of the top ten banned books had LGBTQ content. Her book, compared to others written this decade, simply had two pages where a character talked about going to something call “Gaia’s Circle” which is mainly attended by kids with queer parents. That’s it. Nevertheless, it upset parents and others.

Every September The American Library Association has a focus on banned and challenged books. They present statistics and titles of those books that have had complaints directed by outside people at libraries and schools.

The challenge doesn’t usually involve the book being removed from the libraries; however, in 2022 a new intensity was reached when librarians were resigning or being fired for refusing to remove challenged books and libraries were being threatened or were having their funds cut or cancelled for refusing to remove challenged books from the library. Sometimes it has been over just a single title. The statistics are not accurate in that the challenges are not usually reported so the incidents are presumed to be much, much higher.

Ms. Tamaki was the guest keynote speaker for the 2017 Queers and Comics Conference. This group is has a biennial LGBTQ conference of cartoonists. They meet, alternating between New York City and San Francisco.

This is an interesting and energetic gathering of highly talented writers, artists, and fans. The group of like-minded people meed to discuss and document the significance and history of queer comics, for the talent to discuss their craft, and the actively promote the queer cartoonists of the industry. Because of the depth of discussion, the conference also includes United States and international LGBTQ scholars, journalists, editors, and publishers. The readers of LGBTQ are welcomed as well.

Ms. Tamaki was thrilled to announce her writing inclusion in the middle-school age fiction illustrated series “Lumberjanes”. It’s published by BOOM! Studios. She’s a huge fan of the series; the art, the stories, and the characters are written on the theme of a summer camp for hardcore girls.

Anne of Greenville is Ms. Tamaki’s brilliant queer reimagining of the long-lived favorite literary classic Anne of Green Gables (written by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery). This modern, bold, queer story takes on the classic and spins it into a new delight for a different audience.

Anne of Greenville is an ABBA fan who sings, writes, acts and shares her Japanese-American heritage. Anne is craving to be recognized and understood. She has a certain artistic genius and is trying to fit in after she has relocated to the middle-of-nowhere.

In Greenville, Anne very quickly falls in love, shows her temper, and her quirky personality is soon on display, which causes her trouble but is also attractive. Anne falls in love which causes her to ignore her BFF. She’s given us a fresh adolescent take on the oldest tale of a young person growing into an adult and discovering themselves.

Ms. Tamaki was asked about her new venture as she teams up with editor Charlotte Greenbaum to co-create a new imprint from Abrams Books. Surely Books focuses on LGBTQIA creators and their experiences. She appreciates how Surely Books spotlights a wide variety of styles and genres created by writers and artists of the LGBTQIA community.

Another reason she’s excited about her association with Surely Books is the for the opportunity to share with the world the great, undiscovered works of other upcoming LGBTQIA writers. Ms. Tamaki is cognizant of the fact that queer books aren’t the easiest to get published. She’s inspired by the fact that they are being published and well received.