In an instant, the election changed everything. It has profoundly shifted the context of the work we do toward the darkness that is openly promised by a new president.
I gave my first post-election interview to Bianca Vandenbos at the Book Notions blog:
Continue reading What now? Look to our shared history
It’s gratifying to see our Penguin Classics anthology continue to find its audience. We were recently contacted for interviews for a poetry podcast and three online Q and A’s.
Continue reading Online interviews and a podcast for Penguin anthology
Listen to the audiobook for The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration and I guarantee you will come away with an entirely fresh experience of the writings we’ve presented in our new Penguin Classics anthology. Order it here or ask your local public library to order it for you.
Continue reading Audiobook readers bring “The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration” to life
The weather is turning, and it appears to be time to hit the road again starting this weekend, mostly to promote the new Penguin anthology but also to meet continuing interest in the graphic novel and camp resistance in general. Here’s the list as it stands today of in-person and virtual speaking events for this fall, including serving as headliner for the Densho annual fundraiser. Check the Events page for further updates.
Continue reading Excavating Stories and Unearthing History in Fall 2024
“A Celebration of Art Hansen” was the centerpiece of the first-ever Nichi Bei Book Fest in San Francisco Japantown on July 27. Art and wife Debbie caught Covid from a cruise the week before so had to join us by Zoom in the Koho Co-Creative Space in the Peace Plaza, but it was still a celebratory event with stories told, tributes made, and city proclamations presented. Continue reading REVIEW: “A Capstone Collection from a Beloved Historian”
Jonathan Sandler of London has written a graphic memoir about his Yorkshire grandfather’s WW2 service in the U.S. Army, The English GI. He also blogs at graphicmemoir.co.uk and from across the ocean discovered our work with We Hereby Refuse.
Jonathan sent over some thoughtful questions about the process of turning history from one’s personal heritage into a graphic novel. It took me several months to reply, but here finally are my answers.
Continue reading INTERVIEW: Turning history into a graphic novel
John Okada spent only three weeks with his family at the WRA camp in Minidoka, Idaho, before he was granted indefinite leave through the National Student Relocation Council to attend Scottsbluff Junior College in Nebraska. His year at Scottsbluff is now being recalled as part of a new display at today’s grand opening of the Japanese Hall and History Project at the Legacy of the Plains Museum in Gering, Nebraska.
Continue reading John Okada’s college year in Nebraska recalled at opening of historic Japanese Hall
The Okada signature survives! When I first came to Seattle in 1977, poet and playwright Garrett Hongo brought me backstage to the empty Nippon Kan Theater to show me a wall of graffiti with the name of a juvenile John Okada, painstaking inked into the stone. It was like touching a piece of history. Continue reading Okada graffiti preserved at historic Nippon Kan Theater
The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration hits bookstore shelves today. You will finally be able to walk into a shop and buy a copy to take home. With their iconic black-and-white-and-orange covers, everyone has read or seen a Penguin Classic at some point in their lifetime. Whenever a character carries one in a movie, it’s a visual shorthand to signal the character is a scholar or book nerd. Continue reading “The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration” published today as a Penguin Classic
May 11, 2024 will be the 22nd anniversary of National JACL’s apology in 2002 to what Paul Tsuneishi liked to call the “resisters of conscience.” To mark the occasion, Kimiko Marr and Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages are producing a video livestream this Tuesday, May 14th, at 5:00 pm PDT/ 8:00 pm EDT that I’ve agreed to host. Continue reading Video livestream: Three short films on the Heart Mountain resisters
