Amy Uyematsu was born in Pasadena in 1947 and majored in mathematics at UCLA. Her first poetry collection, 30 Miles from J-Town, received the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize. She is the author of two other poetry collections: Nights of Fire, Nights of Rain, and Stone Bow Prayer (Copper Canyon Press, 2005). Active in the development of Asian American studies at UCLA, Uyematsu coedited the widely used anthology Roots: An Asian American Reader.