Tamiko Nimura

“In a moving conversation with the past, Tamiko Nimura explores her late father’s life and her family’s wartime history at Tule Lake. The typewritten pages of her father’s unpublished memoir—written decades earlier about his childhood behind barbed wire—spark a reckoning with the long shadow of parental loss and the unresolved legacy of incarceration.

“Following an innovative structure, Nimura interlaces her father’s vivid recollections with her own: scenes of camp life, family separation, and resistance alongside her present-day journey as a mother, writer, and descendant. Joining a community pilgrimage to Tule Lake transforms inherited pain into collective remembrance.

“With honesty and lyrical precision, Nimura shows how intergenerational trauma and silence are transmitted, and how confronting them can foster healing. Part memoir, part dialogue with the past, A Place for What We Lose illuminates the enduring costs of incarceration while honoring the persistence of family, memory, and story. It is a profoundly moving exploration of grief, history, and the fragile but necessary work of resilience.” (Publisher’s description)

July 2026

• Q&A: Author Tamiko Nimura’s ‘A Place For What We Lose’ Honors Her Father’s History (South Sound Magazine)

• “How A Birthday Book Barn-Raising Helped Me Finish My Memoir” (Brevity blog)

• Seattle Magazine calls the book “a powerful meditation on pain and loss” 

June 2026

•Family Histories Podcast, “The Incarcerated” (Tamiko talks about her grandfather’s story, shared partially in A Place For What We Lose)

•Diamond in the Rough, an American Studies podcast by Prof. Ben Railton, recommends A Place For What We Lose

May 2026

• Seattle Times Sunday Magazine, “Tamiko Nimura revisits her Japanese American father’s keen account of incarceration” (paywalled)

• KUOW Soundside, “A Tacoma author grapples with Japanese American incarceration and her father’s death,” air date 5/19/26 

• Literary Hub, “To Tell A Story” (essay about finding the structure for A Place For What We Lose)

• “Seven Books That Use Family Archives To Break Generational Silence” (Electric Literature) (a list of a few books my book ”talks” to)

• My interview with Densho’s Communications Manager for the Catalyst blog

• “Returning to Tule Lake” (coverage at UW Viewpoints Magazine)

• “This Isn’t Solitary Work” (review/interview in The Stranger, Seattle): “[The book] explores history, both personal and cultural, showing how inextricably woven they are, not just for her family, but for all of us.” 

April 2026

“Unsilencing History” for AWP Writer’s Chronicle, essay on part of the research for the book

• In a list of “books that we’re excited to see published this month,” California-based Alta Journal calls the book “a vivid, thoughtful work that explores intergenerational trauma, parental loss, and how these histories continue to shape identity and relationships across generations.”

• Seattle’s International Examiner says the book is “gorgeously written and profoundly moving.”

• Publisher’s Weekly (starred review) names the book as “a memorable duet”

• Ms.Magazine lists the book “April Reads for the Rest Of Us” (scroll to the end 🙂 )

•MUTHA magazine includes the book in a list of books about children “finishing” their parents’ creative projects

•CHUM News interview, “Dining and Writing: Tamiko Nimura” (with Jane Wong)

•Discover Nikkei says the book is ”a masterful weaving together of two voices”    

March 2026

• Part 1 of the tour for A Place For What We Lose is now scheduled! Go to my News and Events page for details.

• The Spokesman-Review lists the book in “12 Upcoming Books We’re Excited to Read” 

November 2025

I am excited to announce that A Place For What We Lose: A Daughter’s Journey to Tule Lake is scheduled for publication in April 28th, 2026.

Please see my cover reveal article in Discover Nikkei for more about the beautiful design created for my book.

And please consider pre-ordering from either UW Press or from wonderful independent bookstores!