Amy Uyematsu

Sansei Amy Uyematsu started writing poetry as an undergraduate at UCLA during the bourgeoning Asian American Movement of the late 1960's and 70's. As she and many others began to define themselves as Asian Americans, Uyematsu found poetry to be her most natural and effective vehicle for expression. Her earliest work was published in Gidra, the first Asian American newspaper. Since then, she has produced three critically acclaimed poetry collections, including her latest, Stone Bow Prayer (Copper Canyon Press). Previous anthologies, both published by Story Line Press, are 30 Miles from J-Town, which won the 1992 Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize, and Nights of Fire, Nights of Rain.

Uyematsu's poems have also appeared in scores of literary magazines and anthologies. ln 1998 and 2000, she was a featured poet at the LA Times Festival of Books; one of 24 poets in the MTA's Los Angeles Poetry in Motion project; a profiled writer in the LA Weekly's "A Guide to Literary L.A.;" and a poetry editor for Greenmakers: Japanese American Gardeners in Southern California. Her literary influences heavily draw from contemporary "minority" poets in America such as Lucille Clifton, Linda Hogan, Li-Young Lee, Cathy Song, and Lawson lnada as well as international poets Pablo Neruda, Rumi, Basho, and Wislawa Szymborska. Still, her voice is very much her own as she creates work reflecting a core belief in the promise of "poetry as activism."

Currently, in addition to an active writing career, Uyematsu teaches high school mathematics in Los Angeles. She has worked for many years with Pacific Asian American Women Writers West (PAAWWW), co-sponsor of tonight's event.