Keep Up with The Umijoo Project
Follow the official Umijoo Blog for news, events, updates and more
Umijoo just won the Nautilus Awards gold medal!
We are beyond excited! Umijoo won the 2019 Gold Medal for mid-grade fiction from the highly respected Nautilus Book Awards. This is a huge win, and will help us tremendously in promoting our message of ocean conservation! The Nautilus Book Awards are some of the most...
There’s a manta ray in Fiji named after Umijoo!
Our friends and supporters at the Kokomo Manta Conservation Project named a juvenile female manta after our protagonist! Fiji is a special place for manta rays, and there's a incredible conservation team down there doing amazing work! Cliona Flaherty (@coflahe) and...
Umijoo book design honored with an IPPY award!
The Independent Publisher Book Awards (the IPPYs) have recognized the incredible work of our designer, Mike "Sully" Sullivan of Three Speed Creative, by awarding Umijoo the Bronze Medal in their design category! This is a real honor for Sully and for the rest of the...
August 24 in Langley, WA: Umijoo at the Langley Whale Center
In partnership with the amazing Orca Network, we are thrilled to present an afternoon with Umijoo at the Langley Whale Center! The Orca Network has been working to promote cetacean conservation for decades. One of the organization's flagship projects has been working...
July 24 in Albuquerque, NM: Umijoo at Bachechi Environmental Center
Due to the nature of my work, I don't often have the chance to hold readings or events that aren't in seaside communities. Most ocean-related institutions, events, and festivals are in distinguished seaboard towns and port cities that have legacy relationships with...
Umijoo Tour Calendar: June 2019
Hi everyone! Here's the current tour calendar for Umijoo events in June. I'll be updating this post in real time with any changes or updates! June 15: Bandon, OR -- Umijoo reading at the Washed Ashore Gallery The Washed Ashore Gallery is a wonderful interactive...
June 16th in Brookings, OR: Umijoo at Pacific Sushi
For those of you living in Southern Oregon, Umijoo is coming to your area! Pacific Sushi in Brookings, OR, has been quietly championing the cause of sustainability for years. Ever since the restaurant opened, owner Mike Horgan has been working diligently to find new...
May 23, New York City: Umijoo at Mayanoki
One lesson I learned from the early days of the sustainable sushi movement was the difficulty of reaching an audience with words alone, especially if the subject matter was troubling. We are so bombarded with depressing information these days that we have developed a...
The Making of Umijoo
Umijoo was a massive project. From conception to final production, the book took six years to create. After being inspired by a conversation that I had with a dear friend, I spent two years writing and re-writing the story before approaching Caia to illustrate the...