January 29, 2004 For more information: Frank R. Scatoni 619-807-1887 frank@ventureliterary.com "No Kill Date" Venture Literary Sells a Moving Account of the Horrific Internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II to Palgrave/St. Martin's On January 29, 2004, Greg Dinkin of Venture Literary, representing award-winning journalist David Neiwert, sold the World rights to Strawberry Days: The Rise and Fall of the Bellevue Japanese-American Community to Brendan O’Malley at Palgrave/St. Martin’s. Strawberry Days tells the story of a farming community putting down its roots in America, only to have them torn out by the events surrounding World War II. It examines the Japanese-American community’s internment in concentration camps, along with 110,000 others—the culmination of a decades-long campaign to drive them out of the Pacific Northwest. The book is, at heart, an attempt to relate the meaning of the evacuation and internment beyond the Japanese-American community—and specifically, to remind a broadly Caucasian society that the advantageous position it enjoys did not occur by mere happenstance. The book focuses on the once-thriving community of Issei and Nisei who lived in Bellevue, Washington, when that now-booming "edge city" of Seattle was a tiny farm town. The bones of the story are provided by the Nisei themselves—a collection of some twenty interviewees from various walks of the community’s life, with a special focus on ninety-eight-year-old Tom Takeo Matsuoka, a major figure in the prewar Bellevue community. The author of three books, including Death on the Fourth of July (Palgrave, July 2004), David Neiwert has written extensively about hate crimes, and his reportage on domestic terrorism for MSNBC won a National Press Club Award in 2000 for distinguished online journalism. After the April 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Neiwert was sought out regularly by local and national media as the expert on terrorism in America. He has made numerous television and radio appearances, ranging from MSNBC news programs to his appearance in an episode of Court TV’s Forensics Files. He will also be featured in a forthcoming PBS documentary about hate crimes, Not in Our Town. To learn more about Venture Literary, visit: www.ventureliterary.com. To learn more about Palgrave, visit www.palgrave.com. To learn more about David Neiwert, visit: www.dneiwert.blogspot.com.