About

I love storytelling, writing, producing and editing and am lucky enough to get to do these for a living. My journalism appears in publications including The Guardian and Mosaic Science. I’ve authored two non-fiction books: The Shame Game: Overturning the toxic poverty narrative (2020) & Austerity Bites: A journey to the sharp end of cuts in the UK (2014), and contributed to numerous others. I’m also the founder of the multi-platform anti-poverty initiative storytelling initiative, Project Twist-It. I’ve directed and produced short films, run a comedy club, been a Fulbright Scholar at UC Berkeley, and a producer and consultant on the podcast Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness. In 2020 I was named Best Foreign Columnist at the Southern California Journalism Awards for my Guardian column, Lesson from America.
Twitter: maryohara1 shamegamethebook.com projecttwistit.com

Other Works

Awards and Recognition

  • Alistair Cooke Fulbright Scholar 2010, UC Berkeley Best Foreign Columnist, Southern California Journalism Awards, 2020