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Tamiko Beyer

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Tamiko Beyer is an American writer, editor, and activist. She is the author of several books, including Last Days, a poetry collection that won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry, and Poetry as Spellcasting, an anthology co-edited with Destiny Hemphill and Lisbeth White.

Early life

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Beyer spent the first 10 years of her life in Japan. There, she grew up with Buddhism and Shinto.[1] As a child, she encountered poetry through her parents who read to her and also helped her "memorize Shakespeare soliloquies". Through her teenage years, when she lived in Seattle, she began writing her own poetry; her favorite poets back then were Adrienne Rich, Joy Harjo, Mitsuye Yamada, and Audre Lorde.[2]

Career

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For several years, Beyer worked with the New York Writers Coalition as a volunteer facilitator who led workshops in prisons, hospitals, halfway houses, and other places.[3] Beyer has also worked at Corporate Accountability, an organization that seeks to regulate and impose checks on transnational corporations and their activities, especially those about the environment.[1] Additionally, Beyer was a poetry editor for Drunken Boat.[4]

Since 2005, Beyer has been a Kundiman Fellow.[4]

Publications

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Beyer's poems have appeared in Black Warrior Review, Poets.org, and others.[5][6] Her reviews and essays have appeared in The Georgia Review, LitHub, and others.[7][8] She also regularly publishes in a newsletter called Starlight and Strategy.[1]

In 2011, Beyer published her first poetry chapbook called Bough Breaks with Meritage Press.[9]

In 2013, Beyer published We Come Elemental, a poetry collection, with Alice James Books.[10] It was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry.[11] The Rumpus called it "a series of intimate observations that human, and especially female, sexuality, lesbian sexuality, and the natural world are mysteriously intertwined."[12]

In 2017, Beyer and poet Kimiko Hahn published Dovetail, a chapbook consisting of poems created from words shared in conversation between Beyer and Hahn. Published by Slapering Hol Press, it won the Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Competition.[13]

In 2019, Beyer's poem-story, "Last Days, Part 1", won the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers.[14]

In 2021, Beyer released Last Days, a poetry collection, with Alice James Books.[15] Beyer said it was written with "a poetic practice of radical imagination for our current political and environmental crises."[1] It won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry and was a finalist for the Julie Suk Award.[16][17] In a review of the book, The Adroit Journal lauded Beyer's poetic voice as an optimistic, imperative one.[18]

In 2023, Beyer edited an anthology titled Poetry as Spellcasting with Destiny Hemphill and Lisbeth White, published by North Atlantic Books. A collection of essays, the book poses questions about poetry's relationship to social justice and sacred traditions.[19]

Personal life

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Beyer is half-Japanese and half-white. She is a fourth-generation Japanese American and identifies as queer.[3][4]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "An Interview with Poet Tamiko Beyer". Artists & Climate Change. 2021-05-06. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  2. ^ "Getting to Know Tamiko Beyer, Author of "Last Days"". Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  3. ^ a b "Meet Our Donors: Tamiko Beyer". Make the Road New York. 2014-06-13. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  4. ^ a b c "A Conversation with Tamiko Beyer". 2013-07-17. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  5. ^ "From the archives: Last Days, Part 1 by Tamiko Beyer from BWR 45.1". Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  6. ^ "February by Tamiko Beyer - Poems | Academy of American Poets". Poets.org. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  7. ^ Beyer, Tamiko (2021-06-09). "on Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong". Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  8. ^ Beyer, Tamiko (2018-10-05). "The Newest Wave of Asian-American Writers You Should Know". Literary Hub. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  9. ^ Beyer, Tamiko (2011). Bough Breaks. Meritage Press. ISBN 9780982649329.
  10. ^ Beyer, Tamiko (2013). We Come Elemental. Alice James Books. ISBN 978-1-938584-00-8.
  11. ^ "26th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced". Lambda Literary. 2014-03-06. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  12. ^ Singer, Sean (2013-10-02). "We Come Elemental by Tamiko Beyer". The Rumpus. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  13. ^ Beyer, Tamiko; Hahn, Kimiko (2017). Dovetail. Slapering Hol Press.
  14. ^ "PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers". PEN America. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  15. ^ Beyer, Tamiko (April 13, 2021). Last Days. Alice James Books. ISBN 978-1948579162.
  16. ^ "2022 Winners". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  17. ^ "Julie Suk Award". Jacar Press. 2019-02-11. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  18. ^ D'Stair, Sarah (2021-07-23). "A Review of Tamiko Beyer's Last Days by Sarah D'Stair". The Adroit Journal. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  19. ^ Beyer, Tamiko; Hemphill, Destiny; White, Lisbeth (2023). Poetry as spellcasting: poems, essays, and prompts for manifesting liberation and reclaiming power. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-1-62317-720-1.
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