Joy Kogawa is one of the most acclaimed and accomplished writers of Canada. She was born in Vancouver, B.C. in 1935 and graduated from high school in Coaldale, Alberta, where her family was sent after World War II. She is the winner of numerous awards, including the Books in Canada First Novel Award, the Canadian Authors Association Book of the Year Award, the Peridocial Distributors of Canada Best Paperback Fiction Award, and the Before Columbus Foundation's Amerian Book Award. Her work has been widely anthologized, reviewed internationally, and is the subject of numerous academic articles.