"After the Tsunami"

Throughout his MFA studies, nonfiction writer Matt Komatsu worked on an essay about the death of his grandmother in the 2011 Japanese tsunami. With support from the Pulitzer Center, he finished the story about his return to Japan shortly after the disaster. His piece, "After the Tsunami," was published this month by Longreads,  which publishes personal essays, investigative journalism, and other longform work from the literary nonfiction world.

Matt also recently interviewed novelist Tim O'Brien for the New York Times magazine on O'Brien's decision to write for the acclaimed television series  "This is Us." O'Brien tells Matt, "Most films focus on the suffering of the individual soldier, not how it affects others. When I go silent at the dinner table with my own kids, they know what’s going on inside me. Their dad has been writing about Vietnam for 50 years." 

We'll let you know when Matt publishes his first piece in The New Yorker.