in some ways because it was an unsent letter to my mother, in other ways because it was handwritten, but, yeah, family stuff. one of the most rewarding things about getting older is that one has time to rethink and reconcile with one’s past. it’s not about making up with one’s parents or family. with […]
I was asked by Iris Mahan and Danielle Barnhart if I might contribute to Women of Resistance–Poems for a New Feminism last year. I was working on my novel (the same one, yes the same one I’m finishing now), but I wrote a poem, “January, After El Niño,” that just came out easily. It wasn’t an […]
I got this in the mail recently: “MEANWHILE ELSEWHERE just won the American Library Association Stonewall Book Awards Barbara Gittings Literature Award!!! This is a mouthful but I think it’s basically is the top LGBTQ fiction/poetry award they give out. Which means: THIS IS HUGE. And as a result your work will probably end up […]
Writing has far less need for boundaries than people do. I worry sometimes, that unlike music, writing is limited by language. However, sometimes the limits don’t matter. This is one of my favorite interviews, with Erin Hawley from Easterseals Thrive. http://www.easterseals.com/thrive/rykaaoki.html
This is an interview from 2012. I look back on this now… It’s only been five years, but what a ride it has been! I am so grateful. Right now, I am due to my last site being hacked, I am bringing my blog back (at least from 2013 or so) piece by piece. […]
Well, let’s try this again! So, yes, rebuilding this website has been an adventure. This is now the 4th time I am trying to get something up. In a way this is harder that writing a book. A book takes a while, but there, I know the syntax, the structure, and how to move items […]
“This blog is about women that are my everyday inspirations. I interviewed 437 women that radiate with wisdom, beauty, intelligence and love. The blog is about women that proved to me that there is hope for me and it is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you […]
Hi! It’s been kind of grindy these past few months. Except for some very close friends, I’ve been working on this novel. There were a lot of personal matters that sort of swallowed me up over the past two years, but they are finally clearing up. But now the novel is calling me full-force. It’s […]
I was asked to guest instruct a class on the art of creating poetry manuscripts this year at Lambda Literary’s The Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices. So looking forward to this! Our community has cultivated a publishing landscape and readership that give LGBTQ poets some very special avenues to publication. I’ll be at the […]
So, right now I am in San Leandro, getting ready to film a short screenplay, “Asura” I wrote for Neelu Bhuman’s Transfinite project. I get to play a role, as well. Kelsi Umeko is playing my granddaughter–so inter-generationally queer! It is exciting to see a project come together; I usually work with only a few people […]