Writing

Lara Okihiro

Dr. Lara Okihiro is a yonsei writer, researcher, and educator of mixed Japanese Canadian heritage. Growing up in the diverse, working-class Dixon Road neighbourhood in Toronto, she was close to her Japanese Canadian grandparents and often visited her Anglo-Irish Canadian grandmother on her rural Ontario farm. Though Lara did not like reading as a kid, […]

Eiji Yoshikawa

Writer. Fighter (professional boxer). Filmmaker. Inspirational Speaker. Film Historian. Action Instructor for Movies. Peace Activist.

Leanne Toshiko Simpson

Leanne Toshiko Simpson is a mixed-race Yonsei writer and psychiatric survivor from Scarborough, Ontario. She is a graduate of UTSC Creative Writing and the University of Guelph’s MFA program. Currently, she is a doctoral student in Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto, studying the intergenerational impact of Japanese Canadian internment. She teaches courses […]

Tamura Toshiko

Toshiko Tamura (Tamura Toshiko) was the pseudonym of early modern feminist novelist, Toshi Satō (Satō Toshi). Born in the Asakusa district of Tokyo, Tamura enrolled in the faculty of literature at Japan Women’s University at the age of seventeen. However, due to health issues she was forced to withdraw after one term. Despite no formal […]

Chieri Uegaki

Chieri is a second generation Japanese-Canadian and writer of books for young readers. She graduated from the University of British Columbia’s Creative Writing Department with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and has written stories for Pearson Education, and the children’s magazines Chirp and chickaDEE. Her first picture book was Suki’s Kimono, followed by Rosie and […]

Nicole Yukiko

Nicole Yukiko (Sekiya) is a Vancouver-based performer and creator. She has earned a BFA in acting from UBC as well as a diploma in performance studies from Mount Royal University. Nicole’s focus as a storyteller is sharing the experiences of underrepresented communities. She is proud to be part of the ensemble with JAPANESE PROBLEM in […]

Laura Fukumoto

Laura Fukumoto grew up on Toronto’s East Lakeshore, but relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia in 2009, where she now works as a costume designer and wardrobe professional, graduating from the University of British Columbia with a BFA in Theatre Production and Design. She has worked with many theatre companies such as The Arts Club and […]

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 […]

Toru Fujibayashi

I was born at home into a world of chaos on the 23rd February, 1942 in Vancouver, BC, an enemy alien destined for internment in the Slocan Valley…brief stays in Popoff, Bay Farm, then settling in Slocan City. In 1963 fate would find me at the Alberta College of Art for 4 interminable years. And […]

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 […]

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 […]

Donna Wuest

Donna Yoshitake Wuest has been a professional writer/author for more than 40 years. Born in Vernon, BC, she grew up on the Coldstream Ranch where her parents worked primarily in the orchards. Decades after moving away from the ranch, she researched and wrote Coldstream The Ranch Where It All Began (published by Harbour Publishing). She […]