Tamiko Beyer
{{Short description|Japanese American writer, editor, and activist}}
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
Beyer spent the first 10 years of her life in Japan. There, she grew up with Buddhism and Shinto.{{Cite web |last= |date=2021-05-06 |title=An Interview with Poet Tamiko Beyer |url=https://artistsandclimatechange.com/2021/05/06/an-interview-with-poet-tamiko-beyer/ |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=Artists & Climate Change |language=en-US}} 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.{{Cite web |title=Getting to Know Tamiko Beyer, Author of "Last Days" |url=https://masspoetry.org/new-book-beyer/ |access-date=2024-11-24 |language=en-US}}
Career
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.{{Cite web |last= |date=2014-06-13 |title=Meet Our Donors: Tamiko Beyer |url=https://maketheroadny.org/meet-our-donors-tamiko-beyer/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250119073945/https://maketheroadny.org/meet-our-donors-tamiko-beyer/ |archive-date=2025-01-19 |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=Make the Road New York |language=en-US}} 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. Additionally, Beyer was a poetry editor for Drunken Boat.
Since 2005, Beyer has been a Kundiman Fellow.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2013-07-17 |title=A Conversation with Tamiko Beyer |url=https://www.lanternreview.com/blog/2013/07/17/a-conversation-with-tamiko-beyer/ |access-date=2024-11-24 |language=en-US}}
Publications
Beyer's poems have appeared in Black Warrior Review, Poets.org, and others.{{Cite web |title=From the archives: Last Days, Part 1 by Tamiko Beyer from BWR 45.1 |url=https://bwr.ua.edu/last-days-part-1-by-tamiko-beyer/ |access-date=2024-11-24 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=February by Tamiko Beyer - Poems {{!}} Academy of American Poets |url=https://poets.org/poem/february-2/print |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=Poets.org |language=en}} Her reviews and essays have appeared in The Georgia Review, LitHub, and others.{{Cite web |last=Beyer |first=Tamiko |date=2021-06-09 |title=on Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong |url=https://www.thegeorgiareview.com/posts/on-minor-feelings-an-asian-american-reckoning-by-cathy-park-hong/ |access-date=2024-11-24 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Beyer |first=Tamiko |date=2018-10-05 |title=The Newest Wave of Asian-American Writers You Should Know |url=https://lithub.com/the-newest-wave-of-asian-american-writers-you-should-know/ |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=Literary Hub |language=en-US}} She also regularly publishes in a newsletter called Starlight and Strategy.
In 2011, Beyer published her first poetry chapbook called Bough Breaks with Meritage Press.{{Cite book |last=Beyer |first=Tamiko |title=Bough Breaks |publisher=Meritage Press |year=2011 |isbn=9780982649329}}
In 2013, Beyer published We Come Elemental, a poetry collection, with Alice James Books.{{Cite book |last=Beyer |first=Tamiko |title=We Come Elemental |date=2013 |publisher=Alice James Books |isbn=978-1-938584-00-8 |location=}} It was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2014-03-06 |title=26th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced |url=https://lambdaliterary.org/2014/03/26th-annual-lambda-literary-award-finalists-announced/ |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=Lambda Literary |language=en}} The Rumpus called it "a series of intimate observations that human, and especially female, sexuality, lesbian sexuality, and the natural world are mysteriously intertwined."{{Cite web |last=Singer |first=Sean |date=2013-10-02 |title=We Come Elemental by Tamiko Beyer |url=https://therumpus.net/2013/10/02/we-come-elemental-by-tamiko-beyer/ |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=The Rumpus |language=en-US}}
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.{{Cite book |last=Beyer |first=Tamiko |title=Dovetail |last2=Hahn |first2=Kimiko |publisher=Slapering Hol Press |year=2017}}
In 2019, Beyer's poem-story, "Last Days, Part 1", won the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers.{{Cite web |title=PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers |url=https://pen.org/program/pen-dau-short-story-prize/ |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=PEN America |language=en-US}}
In 2021, Beyer released Last Days, a poetry collection, with Alice James Books.{{Cite book |last=Beyer |first=Tamiko |title=Last Days |date=April 13, 2021 |publisher=Alice James Books |isbn=978-1948579162}} Beyer said it was written with "a poetic practice of radical imagination for our current political and environmental crises." It won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry and was a finalist for the Julie Suk Award.{{Cite web |title=2022 Winners |url=https://lambdaliterary.org/awards__trashed/2022-winners/ |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=Lambda Literary |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2019-02-11 |title=Julie Suk Award |url=https://jacarpress.com/suk-award/ |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=Jacar Press |language=en-US}} In a review of the book, The Adroit Journal lauded Beyer's poetic voice as an optimistic, imperative one.{{Cite web |last=D'Stair |first=Sarah |date=2021-07-23 |title=A Review of Tamiko Beyer's Last Days by Sarah D'Stair |url=https://theadroitjournal.org/2021/07/23/a-review-of-tamiko-beyers-last-days-by-sarah-dstair/ |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=The Adroit Journal |language=en-US}}
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.{{Cite book |last=Beyer |first=Tamiko |title=Poetry as spellcasting: poems, essays, and prompts for manifesting liberation and reclaiming power |last2=Hemphill |first2=Destiny |last3=White |first3=Lisbeth |date=2023 |publisher=North Atlantic Books |isbn=978-1-62317-720-1 |location=Berkeley, California}}
Personal life
Beyer is half-Japanese and half-white. She is a fourth-generation Japanese American and is queer.
References
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Category:American poets of Asian descent
Category:Lambda Literary Award winners
Category:Japanese LGBTQ writers
Category:Japanese emigrants to the United States
Category:21st-century American writers
Category:21st-century American women writers
Category:American women writers of Asian descent
Category:American writers of Japanese descent