Portrait of Ruth Ozeki

Birthday profile

Ruth Ozeki

American writer

Born
March 12, 1956
Age in 2026
70
Zodiac sign
Pisces
Birth year
1956

About Ruth Ozeki

Ruth Diana Lounsbury, better known as Ruth Ozeki, is an American author, filmmaker and Zen Buddhist priest. Her books and films, including the novels My Year of Meats (1998), All Over Creation (2003), A Tale for the Time Being (2013), and The Book of Form and Emptiness (2021), seek to integrate personal narrative and social issues, and deal with themes relating to science, technology, environmental politics, race, religion, war and global popular culture. Her novels have been translated into more than thirty languages. She teaches creative writing at Smith College, where she is the Grace Jarcho Ross 1933 Professor of Humanities in the Department of English Language and Literature. Ozeki's first film, Body of Correspondence (1994), made in collaboration with artist Marina Zurkow, won the New Visions Award at the San Francisco Film Festival and was aired on PBS. The diary is discovered by a novelist named Ruth, who becomes obsessed with discovering the girl's fate. My Year of Meats was awarded the 1998 Kiriyama Prize and the 1998 Imus/Barnes & Noble American Book Award. About a 14-year-old boy who begins to hear voices emanating from things in the house after the death of his father, the book won the Women's Prize for Fiction in June 2022.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Ruth Ozeki timeline

  1. Ozeki's first film, Body of Correspondence (1994), made in collaboration with artist Marina Zurkow, won the New Visions Award at the San Francisco Film Festival and was aired on PBS.
  2. My Year of Meats was awarded the 1998 Kiriyama Prize and the 1998 Imus/Barnes & Noble American Book Award.
  3. About a 14-year-old boy who begins to hear voices emanating from things in the house after the death of his father, the book won the Women's Prize for Fiction in June 2022.

The world when Ruth Ozeki was born

Ruth Ozeki was born in 1956. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1956

  • #1 song"Heartbreak Hotel" – Elvis Presley
  • Top movieAround the World in 80 Days
  • Top TV showI Love Lucy
  • Best-selling bookPeyton Place – Grace Metalious

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentDon Larsen pitches a perfect game in the World Series
  • Top headlineElvis Presley takes America by storm
  • Technology milestoneFirst transatlantic telephone cable (TAT-1)
  • Defining fadElvis Presley mania
  • Notable inventionHard disk drive (IBM)
  • World population2.82 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderDwight D. Eisenhower
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • Also wonPhiladelphia Warriors (NBA)
  • U.S. population168.1M

1956 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Ruth Ozeki's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19562026
Gas$0.30$3.45/gal
Average home$11,700$435,000
Average income$6,500$67,500
Minimum wage$1.00$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.50$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population168.1M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.