April 4, 2023: NeMLA Reflections: Toshiaki Komura on the Poetry of Internment

[A coupleweekends back I was in Niagara Falls for the 54th annual NortheastModern Language Association Convention. Longtime readers will know well howmuch I loveNeMLA, the organization and the convention alike, and this year was noexception. So as usual, here are a handful of reflections on a great NeMLAconvention!]

As I’vewritten many times in this space, my favorite thing about NeMLA is the people,not only the people I’ve gotten to work with on the Board (on which see thehyperlinked post above), but also all those with whom I’ve connected in my 15+years of attending the conference. In many cases those folks have become notjust recurring presences in my life but true friends, and I would certainly saythat of Toshiaki Komura.I had a small part in helping Toshiaki publish his award-winning book LostLoss in American Elegiac Poetry, and I always look forward to theopportunity to learn more from his scholarship and voice. His NeMLApresentation was no exception, as he traced three generations of JapaneseAmerican poetic responses to WWII internment/incarceration, linking them in theprocess to Dickinson & Whitman and the broader legacies of American lyric& pastoral poetry. I never fail to come away from NeMLA with a long list ofnew authors and works to read, and I can’t imagine a more inspiring effect!

Nextreflection tomorrow,

Ben

PS. If youwere at NeMLA, I’d love to hear your reflections too!