Hello! I’m a journalist based in Southern California. You can find my recent feature stories in The New York Times & The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, The Verge, Men’s Health, MIT Technology Review, InStyle, Elle, New York Magazine & The Cut. I’m interested in the intersections of identity, science, health, and history. I especially love writing stories about big issues, told through the lives and experiences of people.

In 2014, I published THE DEATH CLASS: A True Story About Life (Simon & Schuster). My second nonfiction book, SOMEWHERE SISTERS: A Story of Adoption, Identity and the Meaning of Family was released in October 2022 (Algonquin Books, Hachette). SOMEWHERE SISTERS was named an NPR Best Book of the Year, and received a Nautilus Book Award in Journalism and Investigative Reporting, honoring books about social and environmental justice. I am currently working on my third book, COLLEGE TOWN (Hachette), for publication in 2026.

Formerly a national writer for the Los Angeles Times, I’m now a professor at the University of California, Irvine, in the Literary Journalism Program. As an independent journalist, my stories also appear in Wired, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Marie Claire, Glamour, Foreign Policy, Slate, The New Republic, Newsweek, Time, Narratively, and others.

As a former Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow (2021-2022), I’m finishing a project about Black and Asian American interconnected histories. In 2018, I was an Alicia Patterson Fellow in science and environmental reporting. My work has also been recognized by the Association of Sunday Feature Editors, the Society for Features Journalism, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Longform's Best of Science writing of 2016 and 2017, as well as in the Best American Science and Nature Writing book series of 2019 and 2022.

Throughout my writing life I have had some incredible mentors, and I try to pay it forward when I can. I’m a member of the planning team for the Institute for Independent Journalists, led by women of color who are devoted to improving conditions for freelancers from underrepresented backgrounds, and part of the Center for Storytelling at UC Irvine, which aims to help diverse communities tell their own stories. I have worked with The Open Notebook’s Sharon Dunwoody Science Journalism Mentoring Program, and currently serve on the board of the Alicia Patterson Foundation.

My email is ehayasaki09@gmail.com. Connect with me on LinkedIn or subscribe to my Substack, The Reported Essay, for freelance tips and nonfiction craft lessons.