Past Forward

Linda Villarosa is a journalist, an educator and a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine. She covers the intersection of health and medicine and social justice. She is a journalist in residence and professor at the Craig Newmark School of Journalism at CUNY and teaches journalism, medicine and Black Studies at the City College of New York. Her book Under the Skin was published in June...

Nori Uyematsu was born in Cupertino, CA and grew up in Cambell, CA. His family along with over 100,000 others were forced from their home and relocated to what Nori refers to as 'concentration camps" following Executive Order 9066. Nori enlisted in the army and served in the Korean War. Nori Uyematsu was commander of the Kazuo Masuda Memorial VFW Post 3670 in Garden Grove, CA, where he served thre...

Janice Munemitsu is a third-generation Japanese American Sansei. A native of Orange County, California, Janice was raised on the family farm and worked there from age 5 through high school. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business and Biola University Institute for Spiritual Formation. Her family name, Munemitsu, 宗 光, means source of light in kanji....

Gordon H. Chang is professor of history at Stanford University and the Olive H. Palmer Professor in Humanities. In 2019, he published Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic History of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) and, as co-editor, The Chinese and the Iron Road: Building the Transcontinental (Stanford University Press). These books draw from more than seven yea...

Lupe D. Dunn is a first-time published author of The Book Poems, Short Stories, and Essays . Within twenty-six years, I taught elementary and incarcerated youths and adults. I am enjoying retirement while writing material for my second book. The Book Poems, Short Stories, and Essays Archway Publishing, 2023 A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers. This Micro-Podcast...

Matthew Arnold Stern is an award-winning writer and public speaker. He has written professionally since 1983. He published four novels, including Amiga and The Remainders, and a guide to impromptu speaking, Mastering Table Topics. The Remainders Black Rose Writing, 2021 A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share s...

Barbara Pronin worked as an actress, a probation officer, a news editor, and a substitute teacher, which inspired her first book, a  guide to effective subbing. Her earlier mysteries, including three as Barbara Nickolae, earned kudos from best-selling writers Mary Higgins Clark and Tony Hillerman. Her latest mystery, “The Miner’s Canary,” was published last November. Her newest work, a World War I...

Farnaz Calafi loves all kinds of stories! Whether fact-based & well-researched or fictional and out-of-this-world bizarre! She previously worked for the Los Angeles Times & her opinion pieces have been published in USA Today, San Diego Union-Tribune, & The New York Times. She's the author of a non-fiction book titled, 'All Things Coffee' and an upcoming children's book titled, 'Hazel and Her Sun'....

Gayle Carline is the author of 16 books, from mysteries to fantasies, with humor spread liberally among them. When she is not writing, she is leading workshops on writing, speaking at events, or riding her horse. Gayle enjoys creating fascinating characters whom she can involve in everything from chasing a killer to sailing a pirate ship. She lives happily with her husband and a sassy Corgi. In ad...

Sylvia Chong is Associate Professor in English and American Studies and founding director of the Asian Pacific American Studies minor at the University of Virginia. She received her B.A. in English and Philosophy from Swarthmore College, her A.M. in Education from Stanford University, and her Ph. D. in Rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of The Oriental Obscene:...

Greg Robinson , a native New Yorker, is Professor of History at l'Université du Québec À Montréal, a French-language institution in Montreal, Canada. He is the author of the books By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans (Harvard University Press, 2001), A Tragedy of Democracy; Japanese Confinement in North America (Columbia University Press, 2009), After Camp: Portr...

Stephanie Hinnershitz is an author and historian with the Institute for the Study of War and Democracy at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans. She has previously taught at Valdosta State University and Cleveland State University. In addition to her professorships, her research has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Social Science Research Council, the Baker-Nord Center for the H...

Maggie Tokuda-Hall is the author Also an Octopus , illustrated by Benji Davies, The Mermaid, The Witch and The Sea, Squad , illustrated by Lisa Sterle, and Love in the Library illustrated by Yas Imamura with more books forthcoming. She has a BA in Studio Art from Scripps College, and an MFA in Writing from University of San Francisco. Yas Imamura is an illustrator of many picture books for childre...

Kiku Hughes  is a cartoonist and illustrator based in the Seattle area. Her work has been featured in  Beyond Anthology  volumes 1 and 2,  Short Box  #6 and the  Alloy Anthology . She creates stories about identity, queer romance and compassionate sci-fi.  Displacement  is her first graphic novel, and it is a story she's wanted to share for as long as she can remember. Medium History explores memo...

Frank Abe is co-author of the new graphic novel on Japanese American resistance to wartime incarceration, We Hereby Refuse (Chin Music Press: A Wing Luke Museum Book). He won an American Book Award for John Okada: The Life & Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No Boy (University of Washington Press), and made the award-winning PBS documentary, Conscience and the Constitution, on the largest orga...

Angelica Salas joined CHIRLA in 1995 and became CHIRLA’s Executive Director in 1999.  In her role, she has transformed CHIRLA into a mass membership immigrant-led organization that empowers immigrants and their families to win local, state, and national policies that advance their human, civil, and labor rights.  She has grown CHIRLA into one of the nation’s largest and most effective immigrant ri...

Rebecca Tortes (Cahuilla, Luiseño, and Assiniboine Sioux) has worked with California tribal populations for over 20 years and recently served as the executive director for the California Indian Basketweavers’ Association (CIBA), a statewide nonprofit working to preserve, promote, and perpetuate California Indian basketweaving traditions. Before joining CIBA, she worked as a tribal administrator, d...

Tony Hoang is the Executive Director of Equality California and Silver State Equality and a veteran of the LGBTQ+ equality movement. The son of Vietnam War refugees and the first person in his family to attend college, Tony is a proud first-generation immigrant who grew up understanding the marginalized intersections of sexuality, gender, race and immigration status. Born and raised in Houston, Te...

Skye Patrick is the Library Director of LA County Library, one of the largest public library systems in the nation, serving one of the most diverse populations. She was previously Broward County Library’s Director and held leadership roles at Queens Public Library in New York and San Francisco Public Library. Patrick was appointed to the Executive Board of the Urban Libraries Council (ULC), the pr...

Hoang Nguyen is the Director of External Affairs at AAPI Equity Alliance (AAPI Equity). Prior to joining AAPI Equity, Hoang served as a policy deputy at the Office of Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis, which has governing jurisdiction over more than 2 million residents within 20 cities and 23 unincorporated communities in LA County and 25 neighborhoods in LA City. While there, he oversaw a...

Abdi Soltani has served as the executive director of the ACLU of Northern California since 2009. During his tenure, he has pursued long-term priorities to deepen the ACLU’s presence in the California Central Valley and elevate the ACLU’s voice on state policy at the California state capitol. Abdi has worked directly on a number of ACLU campaigns. Through 2015, he co-chaired the Blue Ribbon Commiss...

Mason Granger is the Deputy Director at Get Lit . Originally from Philadelphia by way of Willingboro, NJ, Mason is a poet with 19+ years of professional experience on stage & in classrooms across 49 states and six countries as part of the performance poetry trio, The Mayhem Poets. In 2014, he created SlamFind, a digital platform to connect fans of poetry videos with the poets & live poetry venues...

Charles (Chuck) Dickerson III is the founder, Executive Director and Conductor of the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles. He is also the founder, Executive Director and Conductor of both the South Side Chicago Youth Orchestra, and the Youth Orchestra of Tsakane, South Africa.  He also serves as Director Special Ensembles at California State University, Dominguez Hills, as Director of Music...

Jacqueline Vogtman won the 2021 Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Prize for her book Girl Country. Her fiction has appeared in Hunger Mountain, Permafrost, The Literary Review, Smokelong Quarterly, Third Coast, and other journals. A graduate of the MFA program at Bowling Green State University, she is currently Associate Professor of English at Mercer County Community College. She has lived in Ne...

Stephanie Takaragawa is a cultural anthropologist whose research examines cultural display. Her research broadly focuses on media, art, performance, exhibition, and theme parks and their relationship to racial representation. Much of her work specifically looks at the Japanese-American incarceration during WWII and how that is understood, represented and memorialized in the present. Her teaching a...