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Welcome to my newsletter! I’m so glad you’re here.
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I have missed this kind of writing—a letter in a bottle that I throw out to the Internet seas and inboxes. I used to write these on my blog, Kikugirl, and I appreciate that you’re willing to go on this journey with me.
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What a time to be writing, to be creating anything: a book, a meal, a garden, a school, a safe environment for a child, a life. There is so much destruction in the world right now and at times it is hard to know how and where to begin to act. I am trying to contribute to larger actions through phone calls, petitions, protests, volunteer work, donations. I have made one larger commitment in writing at one my regular publishing homes.
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But when I am feeling lost and despairing, it’s helpful to go back to a picture that I have of myself when I was a little girl.
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Underneath the picture, I have added a caption. “‘I’m a little girl who likes to make things and give them to people.” I remember feeling so happy when I visited my auntie’s house and saw a picture that I drew on her refrigerator. And it’s true—whenever I craft, it’s more enjoyable if I know I am giving it to someone, and I keep them in mind as I work. I used to love drawing when I was little, and gave pictures to my family.
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Time and therapy have taught me that this little girl is part of my core self. What's more, it is amazing how I feel when I honor that core self, when I listen to what makes that little girl really happy.
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I was so heartened by a recent (September 2025) City Arts and Lectures interview with cookbook author Samin Nosrat, who is currently on tour for her book Good Things. If you follow the food world (and I do, as an occasional food writer), you know that she is the author of the cookbook Salt Fat Acid Heat as well as the star of the Netflix series of the same name. (If you haven’t read or watched SFAH, I recommend both!) In her second cookbook and in more recent interviews she speaks candidly about her struggles with mental health. Faced with the staggering success of her first book and series, the deaths of a few loved ones, and then living alone during lockdown, she experienced severe depression. “But at the heart of it,” she said, “I am a person who makes things. I create things. I'm so generative.”
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When I heard her say that, I felt a special connection with her—a brown girl in the world of food, another Cal English major, living in the East Bay in California—but also as another little girl who likes to make things.
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And so when I am feeling too much, it’s helpful for me to ground myself in making things with my hands, and give them to people. Sometimes I will craft (my latest craft obsession is sashiko), or write a letter, or bake a batch of banana bread, or chocolate chip cookies.
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But writing is another way that I make things, another way that I try to give to people. The memoir that I have worked on for so long is a gift I hope to give readers. I hope this newsletter will feel that way too: a small thing that I can give people. I hope you too can find ways to feel grounded in our current chaos, and would love to hear how you are coping.
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In the next newsletter: cover reveal for my book, and more!
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What I’m Reading, 5-Word Notes
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Hera, Jennifer Saint. Another Greek mythology feminist retelling.
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Good Things, Samin Nosrat: So much to try out!
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What I Just Finished Reading, 5-Word Notes
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Death of the Author, Nnedi Okorafor: Just go read this (Afrofuturism) already.
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The Convenience Store by the Sea, Sonoko Machida: Midnight Diner at the 7-11
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The Wilderness, Angela Flournoy: Wow, the Kirkus Prize list already?
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Katabasis, R.F. Kuang’s latest book, a romantasy (romance/fantasy): Yes, hell is graduate school. (Could not finish for that, actually.)
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It Had to Be Him, and I’ll Have What He’s Having, Adib Khorram: Sweet and spicy romcoms.
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See No Stranger, Valarie Kaur: Remember everyone has a story.
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Michi Challenges History, Ken Mochizuki (RIP): Long-overdue biography of a hero.
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The Broken King, Michael Thomas: A beautiful and tough journey.
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I Just Keep Talking, Nell Painter
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Baldwin: A Love Story, Nicholas Boggs (Picking up my library copy soon!)
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In 2026 the University of Washington Press is publishing my memoir, A Place for What We Lose: A Daughter’s Journey to Tule Lake. It is the story of how I finally learned to grieve my Nisei dad (who died when I was 10) by rereading his unpublished camp memoir and traveling on community pilgrimage to the place where he and our family were incarcerated. It has been a journey of 15 years and I have so many stories behind the making of the book. I will share some of those stories here, as well as any publications where I share those behind-the-scenes stories.
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A few places where I have spoken about the book this year:
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• November 2, Fluidity of the South Sound concert. This is not a book-related event, but a cause close to my heart. My nonprofit SSAA (soprano/soprano/alto/alto) choir is one that raises funds for worthy nonprofits in the area, and we make lovely music together. Music for a cause!
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For an archive of my past newsletters, please visit my archive page.
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