Although born in Japan, Mariko Nagai, author of the just-published novel-in-verse "Dust of Eden," was raised mostly in Belgium and the United States.

"I grew up all over the world because of my father's job," she says. "First in Belgium, where I spoke Flemish then French, then back in Japan where I learned Japanese at age 5. Then, when I was 8, we moved to San Francisco, where I learned English by reading street signs and with the help of librarians."

Later, her family moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she attended a public school that was "95 percent white," and where there were "close to zero immigrants and foreigners."