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LA CARMINA BIOGRAPHY.

Biography written by L.E. and C.Y.

LA CARMINA (Carmen Yuen) specializes in mixing Goth and Japanese pop culture with wit and style. She runs one of the most popular sites on Japanese Gothic Lolita fashion (lacarmina.com), which averages over 600,000 hits per month. A familiar face in the nightlife circuit, she designs and models Gothic clothing, which have been featured in Vice and 944 Magazine.

Carmen is also the author of The Cosmos in a Carrot: A Zen Guide to Eating Well, which was published by Parallax Press (founded by Thich Nhat Hanh and run out of Berkeley, CA) in 2006. An avid foodie, her January 2007 promotional tour included TV and radio appearances, readings/signings at major bookstores, and speeches to hundred-plus audiences in a dozen cities. The Cosmos in a Carrot was called “a feast of inspiration and information” (Inquiring Mind); “Honest and sincere […] Yuen walks a straight line between compassion and humor” (Yogi Times). She is represented by NYC's Levine Greenberg Literary Agency.

Carmen holds a J.D. from Yale Law; in 2006, she won a Grammy Entertainment Law Initiative award. She is a summa cum laude/Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Columbia University. Carmen was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada.


FAVORITES.

Food - wild salmon sashimi, BBQ hamachi, wakame, Guayaki yerba mate.

Music - Visual Kei: Malice Mizer, Kokusyoku Sumire, Aural Vampire, The Candy Spooky Theater.

Films - The Ten Commandments, Lone Wolf and Cub, Ichi the Killer, Oldboy, Kamikaze Girls, Tim Burton films.

Books - Everyone should investigate The 120 Days and Sperm Wars.

Fashion - Goth, Victoriana, Japanese Gothic Lolita (h. NAOTO, Black Peace Now, Algonquins)

Art - Edward Gorey, Yoshitomo Nara.

Hobbies - nightcrawling, fashion + graphic design, sleeping 14 hours, putting my Scottish Fold cat Basil Farrow in a bonnet.

Icons - Mana Sama, Yoko Ono, Ben Stein, Martha Stewart, Army of Lovers, the Queen Mother.