Literary Arts

Sharon Sasaki

Family Physician, Visual collage artist, Science Fiction Author. Visual art focuses on creating abstract or impressionistic images depicting creatures both real and imaginary in collage using Japanese papers: washi and momi papers. Science fiction novels include: Welcome to the Madhouse, Genesis, Bud by the Grace of God, Amazing Grace (soon to be published), Hiro’s Hardship […]

Miki Dare

Miki Dare (Dare is pronounced DAH-RAY in Japanese) lives on the West Coast where she likes to express herself with whatever falls into her hands – from a pen to a paintbrush. She enjoys working with mixed media (from food packaging to fire) and acrylics on canvas to explore issues of identity, personal history, and […]

Lynne Kutsukake

Lynne Kutsukake is a novelist and short story writer. She studied Japanese literature in Canada and in Japan, and worked for many years as a librarian. She was a finalist for the Journey Prize in 2010. Her translation of Mizuko Masuda’s fiction, Single Sickness and Other Stories, was published in 2011. Lynne’s debut novel, The […]

Sherri Kajiwara

Sherri is Director|Curator of the Nikkei National Museum at the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre in Burnaby. She has been a fine arts professional since 1992 as a gallerist, gallery director, gallery owner, writer, editor, publisher, and curator. She holds a B.Comm from the Sauder School of Business at UBC and is a graduate […]

Miyo Ishiwata

Miyo Ishiwata was a Nisei poet whose work appeared frequently in The New Canadian in the late 1930s and 1940s. While many writers contributed poems to The New Canadian, Ishiwata was among the most frequently published, and arguably the most popular: several readers of the paper wrote to praise her work for its sensitivity and […]

Mark Toyama

Mark Toyama was a Nisei writer who published several popular works in The New Canadian prior to his early death. He was perhaps best known for his poem “powell st,” first published in The New Canadian in 1940 and then reprinted in 1942 in the midst of the Japanese Canadian community’s forced removal from that […]

Eiko Henmi

Eiko “Cindy” Henmi was a popular writer for The New Canadian in the 1940s. Originally from Victoria, Henmi graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1939. She usually wrote under the pen name “Cinderella”, and was best known for her regular column “Femme-Fare” (1940-1942), but also occasionally contributed short stories and essays under her […]

Brent Hirose

Brent Hirose is an actor, writer, director, improviser, playwright and voice over artist based in Vancouver, BC. Born in Edmonton, Alberta, he grew up all over the middle of Canada before settling in Winnipeg where he graduated with Honours from the University of Winnipeg’s Theatre and Film Program. Working there for over a decade, he […]

Kyo Maclear

Kyo Maclear is a Canadian writer, essayist and beloved children’s author. She was born in London, England (to a British father and Japanese mother) and moved to Toronto at the age of four. Her books have been translated into fourteen languages, and published in twenty countries. Kyo lives in Toronto, Canada,

Kathryn Hatashita-Lee

Kathryn Hatashita-Lee was born in Toronto and raised in Vancouver. She studied for a B.A. in History at the University of British Columbia, where she worked for several years before marrying Roger Lee. A SEAD grant from The National Association of Japanese Canadians helped finance her second year at the Emily Carr College of Art […]

Lillian Nakamura Maguire

Lillian Nakamura Maguire is a second-generation Japanese Canadian, new playwright living and retired in the countryside near Whitehorse, Yukon. Her first play, Hidden Memories was accepted by Ruby Slippers Theatre “Advance Theatre: New Works by Diverse Women” for reading at the 2017 Vancouver Fringe Festival, in partnership with the Fringe Festival and Equity in Theatre. […]

Leslie Shimotakahara

Leslie Shimotakahara is a fourth-generation Japanese-Canadian writer, who resides in Toronto. Leslie holds a B.A. in English from McGill and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Brown in Modern American Literature. Her first book, a memoir called The Reading List, won the Canada-Japan Literary Prize in 2012, and her fiction has been shortlisted for the KM […]

Sukeo Mokujin Sameshima

Sukeo Mokujin Sameshima was born in 1915 in New Westminster, British Columbia. He went to be educated in Japan in 1921 and returned ten years later after completing junior high school. Although his experiences in Japan determined much of his personal outlook, the prairies, which he calls his ‘second home’, have influenced him deeply. He […]

Soramaru Takayama

In 2007, having received an MA in philosophy, Sora travelled the world for four-and-a-half years writing short poems. In 2008, he joined Austrian artist Bello Benischauer’s ongoing art project doing translation and performance work. His first poetry book, Tsuki To Buranko, was published in 2014 which he took on three successful tours of Japan. He […]

Suzanne Elki Yoko Hartmann

Suzanne Elki Yoko Hartmann is a Toronto-based editor, writer and fourth-generation Japanese Canadian with German ancestry. She’s served as the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre newsletter editor, Japanese Social Services administrator and Nikkei Voice managing editor. Since 2022, she divides her time a board member between the Toronto Chapter of the National Association of Japanese Canadians […]