Tamiko Beyer spent the first ten years of her life in Tokyo, and has since lived in cities near the water on both U.S. coasts. She is the author of We Come Elemental (Alice James Books, 2013) and bough breaks (Meritage Press, 2011). She earned her MFAat Washington University in St. Louis, where she was awarded a Chancellor’s Fellowship, and has received grants and fellowships from Kundiman, the Astraea Lesbian Writers Fund, and VONA/Voices. She is the senior writer at Corporate Accountability International in Boston.