Lawrence Matsuda
@lmatsudaLawrence Matsuda was born in the Minidoka, Idaho Concentration Camp during World War II. He has a Ph.D. in education from the University of Washington. After retirement, he became a writer and educational consultant.
In 2010, A Cold Wind from Idaho (poetry) was published by Black Lawrence Press. In 2014, Glimpses of a Forever Foreigner was released. In 2015, Matsuda collaborated with artist, Matt Sasaki, and produced a graphic novel, Fighting for America: Nisei Soldiers. Chapter one was animated by the Seattle Channel and won a 2016 regional Emmy. In 2016, he and Tess Gallagher collaborated on Boogie Woogie CrissCross, a book of poetry. In 2019 his novel, My Name is Not Viola, was published by Endicott and Hugh Books. In 2023, his book Shapeshifter-Minidoka Concentration Camp Legacy won one of two Honorable Mentions in the Idaho Book of the Year competition.
Profile image by Alfredo Arreguin.
Updated September 2024
Stories from This Author
Excerpt from My Name is Not Viola
Oct. 6, 2024 • Lawrence Matsuda
This story follows main character Hanae Tamura, circa late 1930s. After Washington Junior High, I went on to Franklin High School. Miss Sanders, my homeroom teacher, was well-scrubbed and neat. She represented the profession well with her sense of decorum and manners. At first, I couldn’t help but admire her as an example of American liberty, justice, and fairness. I was proud to be in her class and was looking forward to the year. Taking roll, Miss Sanders looked down …
Minidoka
Sept. 19, 2024 • Lawrence Matsuda , traci kato-kiriyama
This month calls back Minidoka survivor Lawrence Matsuda into the Nikkei Uncovered poetry column and has inspired me to begin, from time to time, presenting columns with poetry related directly to a singular site of incarceration. Mr. Matsuda’s poems on Minidoka come from the perspective as a child in the camps and, from tears to night terrors to indelible scars, this is poetry that is not is easy to take in…and I am grateful for what it reveals and insists …
Bite
Oct. 19, 2017 • Kazumi Chin , Lawrence Matsuda , traci kato-kiriyama
As we enter the final quarter of 2017, I didn't want to “ease” into fall but rather, take a bite out of it. Maybe there’s something feisty in the air with all the ash and soot and unrest all around us. In any case, this isn’t a time for languor but it could be a time for something a little outside the box. These two pieces—from El Cerrito-based poet Kazumi Chin and writer Lawrence Matsuda, who was born in the …
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