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Claire Kohda
Born
Claire Lyokho Kohda Hazelton

1990
Other namesClaire Kohda Hazelton
Years active2014–present
PartnerTom Lathan

Claire Lyokho Kohda Hazelton (born 1990) is an English writer, violinist, and illustrator. She is known for her debut novel Woman, Eating (2022).

Early life

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Born to a Japanese mother and an English father, Kohda is from the Thanet District of Kent.[1][2] She attended Clarendon House Grammar School in Ramsgate.[3]

Career

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Writing

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Under the names Claire Hazelton or Claire Kohda Hazelton, she began her career writing literary reviews for The Guardian, and then the Times Literary Supplement and The Spectator.[4] She also contributed to The F-Word blog[5] Financial Times, Frieze, and Asymptote.[6]

At the end of 2020 and start of 2021,[7][8] Virago Press and HarperVia (a HarperCollins imprint) acquired the rights Kohda's debut novel Woman, Eating, which was published in spring 2022 to critical acclaim.[9][10] The novel is a character study on Lydia, "millennial vampire" art school graduate living on her own in London for the first time. Kohda had written the novel during the COVID-19 lockdown when her violin career was put on hold.[11] She wanted to "step away from… reverence for the vampire" and "remove the vampire from the horror genre", taking inspiration from Asian literature that features the supernatural in grounded settings, to dissect human nature "by observing Lydia trying to just simply live her life in our world".[12]

Kohda contributed a short story to the 2023 collection Furies: Stories of the Wicked, Wild and Untamed[13] and illustrations to her partner Tom Lathan's 2024 book Lost Wonders: 10 Tales of Extinction from the 21st Century.[14] She joined the judges' panel of the 2025 Women's Prize Discoveries programme.[15]

Music

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Kohda plays a John Edward Betts violin, a Charles Espey bow, and the koto.[16] As a professional violinist, Kohda contributed to Max Richter's Voices and Voices 2. With the London Contemporary Orchestra (LCO), her contributions appeared on National's 2023 albums First Two Pages of Frankenstein and Laugh Track. She recorded with the (LCO) at Abbey Road Studios for the Sigur Rós album Átta.[17][18] She also played with the likes of Jessie Ware, Pete Tong, Ella Eyre, RY X and Deep Purple as well as the English Chamber Orchestra and the Heritage Orchestra. She contributed to the soundtracks of the films The Two Popes (2019), The Matrix Resurrections (2021), and Tár (2022).[19]

Personal life

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Kohda is in a relationship with environmental author and journalist Tom Lathan.[14]

Bibliography

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Novels

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  • Woman, Eating (2022)

Short stories

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  • "Tygress" in Furies: Stories of the Wicked, Wild and Untamed (2023)
  • "An End" (2024) in Electric Literature

References

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  1. ^ Silvers, Isabella (13 June 2022). "Claire Kohda: "I wouldn't change being mixed-race for anything"". Mixed Messages. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  2. ^ Varno, David (7 January 2022). "Writers to Watch Spring 2022". Publishers' Weekly. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  3. ^ "A-level results - who in Thanet has made the grade?". Kent Online. 14 August 2008. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
  4. ^ "Articles by Claire Hazelton". MuckRack. Retrieved 12 October 2024.
  5. ^ "Author: Claire Hazelton". The F-Word. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
  6. ^ Claire Kohda Hazelton (January 2017). "Claire Kohda Hazelton reviews Violence and Islam: Conversations with Houria Abdelouahed by Adonis". Asymptote. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  7. ^ Cowdrey, Katherine (17 December 2020). "Virago wins Kohda's Millennial vampire debut in six-way auction". The Bookseller. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
  8. ^ Deahl, Rachel (8 January 2021). "Harper Tucks in to Kohda's 'Woman, Eating'". Publishers' Weekly. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  9. ^ Popescu, Lucy (14 March 2022). "Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda review – millennial vampire tale with bite". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  10. ^ Feeney, Madeleine (26 March 2022). "Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda review — a millennial vampire in London". The Times. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  11. ^ Toohey, Caitlin (27 April 2022). "Vampires with a twist and genre constructs with Claire Kohda". Better Words Podcast. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  12. ^ Ramakrishnan, JR (20 April 2022). "A Vampire Hungry for Blood and Intimacy". Electric Literature. Retrieved 12 October 2024.
  13. ^ Mamata, Bidisha (12 March 2023). "Furies: Stories of the Wicked, Wild and Untamed review – a slick and starry collection of short stories". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  14. ^ a b Vlieger, Leon (17 November 2024). "Book Review – Lost Wonders: 10 Tales of Extinction from the 21st Century". Inquisitive Biologist. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
  15. ^ "Launching Discoveries 2025". Women's Prize. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  16. ^ "Claire Kohda". The Harrison-Frank Family Foundation. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
  17. ^ "Claire Kohda Hazelton". Discogs. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
  18. ^ "Átta". Sigur Rós. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
  19. ^ Marcus, Halimah (27 March 2024). "On the Origin of an Ending". Electric Literature. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
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