Camp Notes and Other Writings

Camp Notes and Other Writings

<DIV><P><B>Two collections by an important Asian American writer --<I> Camp Notes and Other Poeems</I> and <I>Desert Run: Poems and Stories</I> -- return to print in one volume.</B></P><P>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. <I>Camp Notes and Other Writings</I> recounts this experience.</P><P>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.</P><P>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.<BR /><BR /> "The core poems of <I>Camp Notes</I> and the title come from the notes I had taken when I was in camp, and it wasn’t published until thirty years after most of it was written. I was simply describing what was happening to me, and my thoughts. But, in retrospect, the collection takes on a kind of expanded meaning about that period in our history. As invariably happens, because Japanese American internment became such an issue in American history, I suppose I will be forever identified as the author of <I>Camp Notes</I>. Of course, I try to show that it’s not the only thing I ever did in my whole life; I did other things besides go to an internment camp during World War II. So, in some ways I keep producing to counteract that one image that gets set in the public mind. At the time that I was writing it, I wasn’t necessarily a political person. Now, when I reread it, even to myself, I think it probably has a greater warning about the dangers of being not aware, not aware of one’s own rights, not aware of helping other people who may be in trouble. I think that it does speak to our present age very acutely." -- <B><I>Mitsuye Yamada</I></B>, <I>"</I>You should not be invisible”: An Interview with Mitsuye Yamada,<I> Contemporary Women's Writing,</I> March 2014, Vol. 8 Issue 1</P><P>Read the whole interview at: https://academic.oup.com/cww/article/8/1/1/414906/You-should-not-be-invisible-An-Interview-with</P></DIV>