This is not a typical “Books” page, where you can purchase books (although I do include a link to the publisher of my story collection). Rather, it’s my way of thanking editors who encouraged me along the way. The Loom is still in print. Some of the journals or anthologies may be defunct or out of print; but they should be remembered nonetheless.
Graywolf Press in Minnesota was one of three publishers to whom I submitted a query letter back in 1991. I had seen their beautiful books (Stories from the American Mosaic, Multicultural Literacy) in bookstores and loved their vision of America as a mosaic rather than a melting pot. I was thrilled to be published by them. I enjoyed hanging out with Scott Walker and Chris Faatz, and meeting Ellen Foos and Anne Czarniecki. Graywolf took the postcard I sent them from the MOA Museum of Art in Atami, Japan (taken from an Edo-era screen entitled “Weavers and Dyers”) and created a gorgeous book cover. I hear they are publishing the 2018 Man Booker Prize-winning novel Milkman, by Anna Burns. Congratulations, Graywolf!
In the summer of 1993, Lois Rosenthal at Story published a short story of mine called “Harmony,” which I wrote after the publication of The Loom. It is based on one of my aunt Kiyo’s memories of her Black piano teacher in San Francisco’s Japantown during the 1920s.
Los Angeles had erupted in riots a couple of years earlier after what has come to be known as the “Rodney King incident.” So racial harmony, and the possibilities for it and proof of its possibilities, were very much on my mind.
One of the perks of getting published is having the opportunity to connect with other writers. In 1992, the SF Chronicle asked me to write a review of Sylvia Watanabe’s wonderful story collection, Talking to the Dead. A few years later, Sylvia edited Into the Fire: Asian American Prose (Greenfield Review Press, 1996), and asked me if I had anything she could include. I sent her a few pieces, and she liked several short pieces of creative non-fiction which I called “A Dictionary of Japanese-American Terms.” Those pieces (and “Deru Kugi” and others, which were written later) are now posted on this website in the category of the same name.
My story “The Loom” was first published in Making Waves: An Anthology of Writings By and About Asian American Women,” edited by Asian Women United (Beacon Press, 1989). Booklist said, “…tales such as “The Loom” sensitively reveal the vulnerability and the strength of the immigrant.” According to India West, “”The Loom,” a short story by Japanese American R. A. Sasaki, about a woman who survived the internment camps of the second world war and her relationships with her “Americanized” daughters… gets the vote for the best story of the collection.”
In the 1980s, the Short Story Review, based in San Francisco, showcased emerging as well as established writers and played a vital role in the short-story renaissance of the time.
“Wild Mushrooms,” a short story of mine based on a trip to Hiroshima that I had taken with my father, was published in the Spring 1988 issue, after it had appeared the previous fall in San Francisco State University’s literary journal, Transfer.
Yosemite National Park has been such an important part of my family’s history that I could not resist the clarion call for submissions when the Yosemite Conservancy was preparing to celebrate the park’s 150th anniversary. Not only did my family vacation there almost every summer when I was growing up — but I actually found a copy of my book in the Ansel Adams Gallery bookshop…and I hadn’t even twisted anyone’s arm to carry it! “A Yosemite Family Legacy,” written for this anthology, also appears in this website in the “San Francisco stories” category.