Winifred Bird is a writer, translator, food enthusiast, nature lover, forager, and Japanese culture expert looking to change the world by sharing iconic foods and hidden stories.
A political science student, she worked at farms across the United States and Canada before moving to rural Japan, where she spent close to a decade writing, growing organic rice and vegetables, and absorbing a second culture. She is now based in the Midwest and lives with her family in a small town on the banks of the Rock River.
A lifelong cook and lover of plants, both wild and domesticated, she is the author of Eating Wild Japan: Tracking the Culture of Foraged Foods, with a Guide to Plants & Recipes, published by Stone Bridge Press in 2021. The book ties together food, nature, and Japanese culture.
Along the way, Winnie has reported on the environment and architecture for many national publications and translated a growing stack of books from Japanese to English. Her writing has appeared in Dwell, NPR.org, Science, and the Japan Times. As a Japanese-to-English translator, she works on academic texts, cultural material, and fiction such as young-adult titles including Mirai and Wolf Children by Mamoru Hosoda.
