Benjamin Martin was born in Arizona where he studied Japanese Language, Culture, and History at the University of Arizona. He joined the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme in 2008 and has been living in Okinawa ever since. His manuscript was a semi-finalist in the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition and he recently won the 2013 SCBWI Crystal Kite member choice award for Samurai Awakening.Benjamin currently works with the Okinawa Deep Sea Water Research Institute's OTEC Plant, takes many pictures, and blogs about Japan on MoreThingsJapanese.com. Find out more about Benjamin on facebook.com/authorBenjaminMartin or SamuraiAwakening.com