The Nail That Sticks Out

The Nail That Sticks Out: Growing up Japanese Canadian in Postwar Toronto
 is being published by Dundurn Press.
 
This fourth-generation account is a unique hybrid memoir exploring an evolving community through memories of places, events and traditions while tackling issues of identity, belonging and racism.
 
Through the lens of wartime incarceration, family honour, traditional arts and human connection, it celebrates the historical and cultural contributions of the Japanese Canadian community to the Toronto landscape.
 

Publication is expected for October 2024. Sign up to receive advance notice.

 
 
 

Toronto Arts Council
Writers Grant

Thanks to the Toronto Arts Council for providing a writers grant to complete this important work.

Suzanne Hartmann Collage 2

What I’m working on

My efforts to preserve cultural memories for future generations during my MFA at the University of King’s College has taken on a life of its own. I am so grateful to be able to share this work with a wider audience. 

The Nail That Sticks Out: Growing up Japanese Canadian in Postwar Toronto examines Japanese Canadian history and cultural arts via  family stories, which reflect on generational conflict, identity, belonging, displacement and racism.

The work bridges two cultures and contrasts the North American dream of achievement through the conformity imposed by the Japanese adage: the nail that sticks out gets hammered in. 

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Japanese Festival