Elizabeth Colina Katayama (nee McDonald; 9 October 19124 September 1998) was an Australian writer known by the pseudonym Elizabeth Kata, best known for ''Be Ready with Bells and Drums'' (1961), made into the award-winning film ''
A Patch of Blue
''A Patch of Blue'' is a 1965 American drama film directed by Guy Green about the friendship between an educated black man (played by Sidney Poitier) and an illiterate, blind, white 18-year-old girl (played by Elizabeth Hartman), and the proble ...
'' (1965).
Biography
She was born of Scottish parents in
Sydney in 1912. After marrying the Japanese pianist Shinshiro Katayama in 1937,
she lived for 10 years in Japan. During the last years of World War II, she was interned at the mountain resort village of
Karuizawa, Nagano
is a resort town located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 20,323 in 9897 households, and a population density of 130 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Karuizawa is one of the oldest and most ...
. She returned to Australia in 1947 with her baby son David, battling the Australian government for permission.
As well as writing novels, she wrote for television and several Hollywood scripts. Her first novel, ''Be Ready with Bells and Drums'' (written in 1959, first published in 1961), was produced as the film ''A Patch of Blue'' (1965).
, who directed, adapted Kata's book and his screenplay was nominated for a
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is the joint efforts of two different US labor unions representing TV and film writers:
* The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), headquartered in New York City and affiliated with the AFL–CIO
* The Writers Gu ...
award. After the success of the film, the novel was re-released as ''A Patch of Blue''. The book was for many years included in the "school book list" both in the U.S. and Australia. The book ''Mrs Katayama and Her Splash of Blue'' (2010, Independence Jones), covers how Elizabeth Kata's first book became the film ''A Patch of Blue''.
Elizabeth Katayama died in Sydney in 1998.
Works
*''Be Ready with Bells and Drums'' (1961; re-published as ''A Patch of Blue'')
*''Someone Will Conquer Them'' (1962)
* ''Look Back in Horror''
*''Tilda'' (1979)
*''Child of the Holocaust'' (1980)
*''The Death of Ruth'' (1981)
*''With Kisses on Both Cheeks'' (1981)
*''Sarah'' (1982)
*''Kagami'' (1989)
References
External links
* http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowAgent&agentId=A)yV
* http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Search/Home?lookfor=author:%22Kata,%20Elizabeth%22&iknowwhatimean=1
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kata, Elizabeth
1912 births
1998 deaths
20th-century Australian novelists
Australian women novelists
Australian expatriates in Japan
20th-century Australian women writers
Writers from Sydney
Australian people of Scottish descent
World War II civilian prisoners held by Japan
Pseudonymous women writers
20th-century pseudonymous writers