Yuriko Chavez was born and raised in Southern California. She is of Japanese and Mexican descent, and finished "Home is Little Tokyo" on her 14th birthday. She has always been passionate about writing ever since she was in kindergarten. In her free time, she enjoys reading, writing, crocheting and exploring with her friends Sofia and Charlotte. She dreams of one day publishing her own novel.

Updated August 2017

Rubén “Funkahuatl” Guevara is a native Angelino and over the past 50 years has worked as a musician, record producer, journalist, poet, film actor, playwright-performance-theater artist, teacher, and activist. He is a UCLA graduate in World Arts & Cultures and lives and works in Boyle Heights. www.tantrikfunk.net.

Updated October 2014

Sarena Kuhn attends Los Alamitos High School. She enjoys learning, writing, and going on adventures. With a Japanese American mother and a Caucasian father, she is proud to be “hapa” and values the importance of preserving and sharing culture.  She has strong passions for literature and working with others. 

Updated September 2016

Born and raised in Los Angeles. Lived in Little Tokyo as a child and attended Lumbini Kindergarten. Moved to the downtown area when she was in the second grade, and frequently visited Little Tokyo to help her mother with grocery shopping. Started working at Japanese Village Plaza in 2010. Started writing as a hobby in middle school, and became fascinated with reading books in both English and Japanese as an adult.

(Updated September 2016)

Joe Wocoski was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1951. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Connecticut in 1973 and an MBA from the University of Hartford in 1975. Joe had a long career in Corporate Quality Assurance and was a Baldrige Examiner in 2013 and 2014. In April, 2016, Joe retired and is now a full time author. As an author, Joe is best known for his word search book series based on The King James Bible and Shakespeare Sonnets. Joe started writing down his short stories in 2015 and in April 2016, he won the Imagine Little Tokyo Short Story contest. Joe is currently working on his first science fiction and fantasy short story book, it will be published under the moniker JB Wocoski. 

Upddated September 2016