Photo by Evan Kodani

Mia Nakaji Monnier is a writer in Los Angeles. The daughter of a Japanese mother and a white American father, Mia grew up moving frequently across the country and has lived in places including Texas, Illinois, Washington, Vermont, and Kyoto, Japan. 

Her writing has been featured in The Boston Globe, BuzzFeed News, KCET, Los Angeles Review of Books, Shondaland, The Washington Post, and the book This Long Thread: Women of Color on Craft, Community, and Connection by Jen Hewett (Roost Books, 2022), among other publications. She has worked as an editor at Guernica, Hunker, Apartment Therapy, HelloGiggles, and Japanese American community newspaper The Rafu Shimpo.

A Tin House Workshop alum, Mia has won the Black Warrior Review Nonfiction Contest, a Los Angeles Press Club National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award, and an Idyllwild Arts Writers Week Nonfiction Fellowship. She has a Master of Professional Writing (MPW) in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Southern California and a BA in Japanese Studies from Middlebury College.

She also tests knitting patterns for designers and yarn companies and teaches classes at a local yarn shop.