SOURCE: Yamada, Mitsuye, and Helen Jaskoski. “A MELUS Interview: Mitsuye Yamada.” MELUS 15, no. 1 (spring 1988): 97-108.

In the following interview, Yamada reveals her thoughts on writing poetry as a woman and a Japanese American.

Mitsuye Yamada's own words are the best introduction to her life and work. In 1986 she wrote this statement for Amnesty International: “My writings generally express my ethnic experiences; my literature and writing courses are taught from a multicultural perspective; and my community activities reflect my human rights interests. With these activities I have been working towards integrating the complex fragments of my life into a profound whole throughout most of my adult life. I have tried to contribute towards making our society a truly multicultural one in which our institutions would eventually reflect the experiences of women as well as the working class and ethnic minorities of both sexes.”

Born in Kyushu, Japan, Mitsuye spent...