Author: Mitsuye Yamada
Subject: Literature/Asian American Studies /Women's Studies
Paperback ISBN 0-8135-2606-X
Pages: 176 pp.
Description: Two collections by an important Asian American writer--Camp Notes and Other Poems and Desert Run: Poems and Stories ---return to print in one volume.

Honorable Mention of the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Awards

"Whether she writes from the landscape of the desert, the interiors of home, or the struggle of Japanese Americans, Mitsuye Yamada's poetry is a gift to American literature." -Nellie Wong

"Her reflections of the camp are vivid, pain-filled, weighted with irony. . . . She confronts the 'invisibility' of Asian American women in American culture." -Los Angeles Times

Mitsuye Yamada was born in Kyushu, Japan, and raised in Seattle, Washington, until the outbreak of World War II when her family was removed to a concentration camp in Idaho. Camp Notes and Other Writings recounts this experience.

Yamada's poetry yields a terse blend of emotions and imagery. Her twist of words creates a twist of vision that make her poetry come alive. The weight of her cultural experience-the pain of being perceived as an outsider all of her life-permeates her work.

Yamada's strength as a poet stems from the fact that she has managed to integrate both individual and collective aspects of her background, giving her poems a double impact. Her strong portrayal of individual and collective life experience stands out as a distinct thread in the fabric of contemporary literature by women.

Mitsuye Yamada is the founder of MultiCultural Women Writers and co-editor of an anthology of the group's work, Sowing Ti Leaves: Writings by MultiCultural Women.