Review “These poems—each fiercely personal in their exploration of what it’s like to be trapped on earth, at home, between freeways, beneath student loans, within oneself—are lyrical pinpricks that etch their way toward some better place, a starlit space, which might not be so out of reach after all.” —Cristina Fríes, 2018 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers Winner About the Author Akira Olivia Kumamoto is a poet, essayist, and journalist from Long Beach, California. She studied poetry under the mentorship of Joe Wenderoth at the University of California, Davis. Her poems were featured in The Rumpus and the LENNY Letter's podcast. She won first prize in the 2015 Pamela Maus Contest in Creative Writing for poetry and was a finalist in the 2015 Ina Coolbrith Poetry Competition. Akira is Japanese-Mexican/Mestiza American: the descendent of WWII internees, the Tepehuán people of Mexico, Michigan farmers, and Spanish colonizers. She is currently a news video producer for McClatchy, stationed at the Sacramento Bee, and holds a Master of Journalism from the University of California, Berkeley.