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Cai Emmons

カイ・エモンズ

Cai Emmons

Pen Names: Cai Emmons（Published name）

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1951-01-15
Died
2023-01-02 （Eugene, Oregon, USA） age 71
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Eugene, Oregon, USA

Career

Occupations
novelist, playwright, screenwriter, teacher
Active Years
1980-2023

Education

Yale University
Degree: BA
Country: United States
New York University Tisch School of the Arts
Film
Degree: MFA (Film)
Country: United States
Thesis film won a Student Academy Award
University of Oregon
Fiction (MFA)
Degree: MFA (Fiction)
Country: United States

Awards

Oregon Book Award: Ken Kesey Award for the Novel
Work: His Mother's Son
Organization: Oregon Book Awards
Result: winner
Nautilus Book Award
Work: Weather Woman
Organization: Nautilus Book Awards
Result: winner
Leapfrog Global Fiction Prize
2019
Work: Vanishing: Five Stories
Organization: Leapfrog Prize
Result: winner
Montaigne Award (Finalist)
Work: Sinking Islands
Organization: Eric Hoffer Awards
Result: finalist
May Sarton Award
Work: Sinking Islands
Organization: Unknown
Result: winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

His Mother's Son

2003 Fiction (novel)

A novel exploring family relationships and identity, interweaving past and present to reveal complex emotional lives.

familyidentitymemory

The Stylist

2007 Fiction (novel)

A novel about appearance and social roles, questioning societal expectations through characters' mismatches between exterior and interior lives.

appearancesocial expectationself-perception

Weather Woman

2018 Fiction (novel)

Centers on a TV meteorologist and explores relationships and self-realization, using weather as a motif to examine change and vulnerability.

self-realizationchangevulnerability

Vanishing: Five Stories

2020 Short stories

A collection of five short stories themed around identity, with recurring motifs of loss and transformation.

identitylosstransformation
Adaptations
  • [Documentary film] Vanishing: A Love Story / Sandra Luckow (2025)

Sinking Islands

2021 Fiction (novel)

Uses rising seas and vanishing islands as a motif to intertwine environmental concerns with human relationships and loss.

climate changelosscommunity

Unleashed

2022 Fiction (novel)

A novel about liberation from personal constraints and individual transformation, focusing on inner emancipation.

liberationtransformationself-exploration

Livid

2022 Fiction

A work depicting conflict and intense emotions; may consist of short or mid-length pieces.

emotionconflict

The Bells

2025 Fiction (novel)

The author's final novel, submitted on the day of her death; thematically engages with death, loss, and resonant memory (posthumously published 2025).

deathlossmemory

Bibliography

  • His Mother's Son
  • The Stylist
  • Weather Woman
  • Vanishing: Five Stories
  • Sinking Islands
  • Unleashed
  • Livid
  • The Bells

Adaptations

  • Vanishing: A Love Story (documentary film, 2025)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
concise, empathetic prosevisual and cinematic description
Recurring Motifs
identitylosswater/islandsillness and death

Health

  • Bulbar-onset ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis)
    2021–2023
    Affected muscles of head and neck (speech and swallowing); limited speech and affected daily function, yet she continued writing and submitted her final manuscript.

Legacy

Cai Emmons was acclaimed for works addressing family, identity and loss. Red Hen Press established the Cai Emmons Fiction Award in her honor, and her work inspired the documentary film Vanishing: A Love Story.

In Popular Culture

  • Vanishing: A Love Story (documentary, 2025)

Trivia

  • She sent the final manuscript of 'The Bells' to her publisher on the day she died.
  • Diagnosed with bulbar-onset ALS in 2021.
  • Chose to utilize Oregon's Death with Dignity law.