About

Katherine Dacey has been reviewing manga since 2006, when she joined PopCultureShock‘s team of writers. Over the next two years, she worked with webmaster Jon Haehnle and fellow contributor Erin Finnegan to transform Erin’s “Manga Recon” concept from a bi-monthly column into a full-fledged website covering manga, anime, and Japanese pop culture. In her capacity as Senior Manga Editor, Kate was responsible for expanding the Manga Recon team from two to nine, and for developing many of the site’s recurring features such as The Otaku Bookshelf, a column devoted to light novels; On the Shojo Beat, a column focused on Viz’s extensive Shojo Beat line; and Comics for Manga Lovers, a column introducing Death Note fans to Western comics. She stepped down from her post in January 2009.

Kate’s resume also includes serving as a panelist at New York Comic-Con and Wondercon; contributing to Chopsticks, a “comprehensive guide to Japanese culture in New York City”; and guest-blogging at Precocious Curmudgeon, the website of Flipped! columnist David Welsh. She has been interviewed by Comic World News, Blog@Newsarama, and Voice of America Radio. In 2008, she had the privilege of seeing of her review of Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms translated into Japanese.

When she isn’t writing about manga, Kate swings a golf club, plays the oboe, runs long distances, watches old movies, and frolicks with her dog Grendel. She remains active with the School Library Journal’s Good Comics for Kids blog, where she writes Good Manga for Kids, a monthly column that focuses on manga for pre-teen readers. Kate lives in Boston, MA.

Kate would like to thank Dee Dupuy and Dan Hess for their assistance with site design and coding.

THE MANGA CRITIC AROUND THE WEB:

• The Beat: Shojo Beat Cancellation Reax (5/20/09)
• Blog@Newsarama: Everyone’s a Critic: Interview with Katherine Dacey (2/18/08)
• Comic World News: Fandemonium: CLAMP (9/24/07)
• The Comics Reporter: Flipped! David Welsh and a Few Friends on Recommended Spooky, Scary and Supernatural Manga (10/26/09)
• Flashlight Worthy Books: Great Graphic Novels About Women, By Women (3/25/10)
• The Hooded Utilitarian: xxxHOLiC Roundtable: On the Pleasures of Comeuppance Theater (1/21/10)
• The Hooded Utilitarian: Komikusu Roundtable: Three Not-So-Radical Ideas for Marketing Manga to Grown-Ups (6/22/10)
• Manga Bookshelf: Breaking Down Banana Fish, Vols. 1-2 (3/20/10)
• Manga Bookshelf: Breaking Down Banana Fish, Vols. 3-4 (5/25/10)
• Manga Bookshelf: 5 Female Voices in Manga Criticism (1/13/10)
• The Manga Curmudgeon: Review, Go West!, Vol. 1 (1/20/09)
• The Manga Curmudgeon: Review, Manhwa 100 (2/2/09)
• The Manga Curmudgeon: Review, Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei: The Power of Negative Thinking, Vol. 1 (3/4/09)
• The New Yorker: The Manga Hall of Shame (9/23/09)
• Publisher’s Weekly: Manga Community Reacts to Viz Layoffs (5/19/10)
• Robot 6: Roundtable: Girls and Fandom (7/20/09)
• Robot 6: What Are You Reading? (5/3/09)
• Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group: A Manga Canon? (9/28/09)
• School Library Journal: Newsflash: Teen Girls Read Manga! (3/4/09)

THE MANGA CRITIC AT CONVENTIONS:

• American Library Association Annual Conference 2010: The Best Manga You’re Not Reading (Panel with Brigid Alverson, Robin Brenner, and Martha Cornog)
• American Library Association Annual Conference 2010: Good Comics for Kids: Building a Graphic Novel Collection for Young Readers (Panel with Brigid Alverson, Robin Brenner, Esther Keller, Eva Volin, and Snow Wildsmith)
• New York Comic-Con 2009: Newsflash: Teen Girls Read Manga! (Panel with Brigid Alverson, Robin Brenner, and Tricia Narwani)
• Wondercon 2010: Comics Journalism (Panel with David Brothers, Laura Hudson, Graeme McMillan, and Ron Richards)