
Shizue Seigel
Multidisciplinary Creative Resume • www.shizueseigel.com
Shizue Seigel is a third-generation Japanese American writer, visual artist and community activist who explores complex intersections of history, culture and spirituality through prose, poetry and visual art.
The child of former incarcerees, she was born in 1946 and grew up in segregated Baltimore, Occupied Japan, California farm labor camps and skid-row Stockton. She’s a college dropout who learned by doing—from the Haight-Ashbury to Indian ashrams, from the corporate advertising to HIV prevention to San Francisco’s vibrant activist arts community.
She is the founder/director of Write Now! SF Bay. See www.WriteNowSF.com for more information.

Selected Awards/Grants (as individual artist)
• FY 2026, FY 2021, FY 2018, FY 2016: San Francisco Arts Commission individual artist grants
• 2023, 2022, 2021, 2019, 2015. 2013: VONA/Voices national workshop for writers of color
• 2021 Jefferson Award
• 2018, 2016, and 2014: Soul-Making Keats Competition, National League of American PEN Women,1st, 2nd, 3rd prizes
• 2017: Associate Writer, Atlantic Center for the Arts
• 2017 & 2016: Associate Writer, Atlantic Center for the Arts
• 2013-2015: Studio Artist, Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica
• 2010: Literary and visual art papers archived at California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives, University of
California, Santa Barbara
• 2004-2006: California State Library California Civil Liberties Public Education Program (CCLPEP) grant
(with the Military Intelligence Service of Northern California)
• 2002: scholarship, first annual A Room of Her Own Writers Retreat
Selected Awards/Grants (through Write Now! SF Bay)
• 2023-2024: California Arts Council Impact grant for Food for Thought
• 2024: Grants for the Arts
• 2023-2026: California State Library (California Civil Liberties Public Education Program)
• 2023-2025: California Arts Council General Operating Relief – Write Now! SF Bay
• 2021: California Arts Council Impact grant for Uncommon Ground anthology
• 2023: Grants for the Arts
• 2022: Community Vision Arts Reopening Grant
• 2022: Zellerbach Family Foundation Covid Relief funds
• 2022: San Francisco Arts Commission Cultural Equity Grant
• 2021: Jefferson Award
• 2021: California Arts Council Impact grant for Uncommon Ground anthology
• 2021: California Arts Council General Operating Relief
• 2020: California Humanities, Quick Grant, Stand Up and Be Counted workshops
• 2020: San Francisco Arts Commission Artist commission for What Endures
• 2020: Literary Arts Emergency Fund
• 2019: Zellerbach Family Foundation for Civil Liberties United
• 2019: Center for Creative Innovation CALI Accelerator grant
• 2019: Intersection for the Arts - The Arts Accelerator
• 2016 Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center’s United States of Asian America Festival grant
Books (author, editor)
• 2024: Poet: Courting A Man Who Doesn’t Talk, Coyotebrush Books
• 2024: Editor/contributing writer and artist: Life Lines/Food for Thought mini publications
• 2022: Editor/contributor: Uncommon Ground: BIPOC Journeys to Creative Activism, Pease Press
• 2021: Editor/contributor: Essential Truths: The Bay Area in Color, Pease Press
• 2021: Editor/contributor: Talking to Strangers, mini publication series
• 2019: Editor, Civil Liberties United: Diverse Voices from the San Francisco Bay Area, Pease Press, 300 pp.
• 2019: My First Hundred Years: The Memoirs of Nellie Nakamura. Pease Press, 198 pp, Reprint of Century of
• 2019: Co-author, My First Hundred Years: The Memoirs of Nellie Nakamura. 2nd printing of Century of
Change, first printed in 2002
• 2018: Editor, Endangered Species, Enduring Values, Pease Press, 272 pp.
• 2016: Editor, Standing Strong! Fillmore & Japantown, Pease Press, 140 pp.
• 2010: Editor/contributing artist, Distillations: Meditations on the Japanese American Experience from Four
Sansei Artists, Asian American Women Artists Association, Pease Press, 74 pp. exhibition catalog.
• 2006: Author, In Good Conscience: Supporting Japanese Americans During the Internment, AACP, Inc.
• 2002: Co-author, Century of Change: The Memoirs of Nellie Nakamura. Private commission, 2002
Books (cartographer):
• 2012: Chief cartographer, Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas, by Rebecca Solnit and Rebecca
Snedeker, UC Press
• 2010: Cartographer/artist, Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas, Rebecca Solnit, UC Press
Selected Anthologies (contributor)
• 2023: “to the woman liberated by loneliness,” Colossus:Body, Colossus Press 2023
• 2020: "Prayers for a New Reality," (Her)oics: Women's Lived Experience of the Pandemic, Amy Roost &
Joanell Serra, eds, Regal Press
• 2019: "Who Do You Think You Are?" We've Been Too Patient: Voices from Radical Mental Health, L.D. Green &
Kelechi Ubozoh, eds., North Atlantic Press
• 2018: “Swimming in the New Normal,” Nothing But The Truth So Help Me God: All the Women in My
Family Sing, Deborah Santana, ed. Nothing But The Truth
• 2017: “Arboreal Homicide,” Your Golden Sun Still Shines, Denise Sullivan, ed., Manic D Press
• 2009: “Grandma’s House,” and “X-Ray Eyes,” Empty Shoes: Poems on the Hungry and the Homeless,
Popcorn Press
• 2008: “A Trunk of Dreams” and “A Living Civics Lesson,” My Words Are Gonna Linger: The Art of
Personal History, Association of Personal Historians,
• 2007: “Don’t Look Away,” Cheers to Muses: Contemporary Works by Asian American Women, Asian
American Women Artists Association
• 2003: “A Well-Made Life,” InvAsian: Growing Up Asian American and Female in the United States, Asian
Women United
Selected Literary Journals (contributor)
2025: “Searching for Colour in the Cool Grey City.” Panorama 15, Paris issue
2025: “Taking Care of Business: HIV Prevention,” Dreams+Memories=A Beautiful Remix
2025: “Sharecroppers’ Kids,” “A Poem of Pleasures,” Xinachtli Jounral/Journal X,
2025: “sheer luck,” BE Journal, May
• 2024: “in the blood,” “lies we told ourselves,” “smoke song trilogy: daddy o, smoke signals, daddy’s girl”, “summer of scabby knees” Ginsoko Journal #32
• 2024: “zocalo of the coast,” “summer fruit”, Porter Gulch Review
2023: “badger woman,” “the dark and the light of it” March 9, 2023 “when words don’t come, Lake County Bloom, March 13, 2023https://thebloom.news/when-words-dont-come-poetry-by-shizue-seigel/ and https://thebloom.news/two-poems-by-shizue-seigel/ Mar-Apr
• May 31, 2023: “Strawberry Mud” https://memoirmag.com/nonfiction/strawberry-mud-by-shizue-seigel/ (first published June 3, 2022 on PenHitting Paper.com Angelique Imani Rodriguez, ed. Online
2023: “Seeking Sakuchi," White Enso
• May 2022: “Baachan’s House,” “Baachan Grandma,” Nikkei Uncovered poetry column, Discover Nikkei. https://discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2022/5/19/nikkei-uncovered-66/
• 2021: “Hunting Blackbirds,” “open season • no limit,” The Next American Revolution
• 2021: “Mother Knows Best,” Lunchbox Moments zine
• 2020: “Letter to Two Unhoused Women,” Navigating Poetics, Kearny Street Workshop
• 2020: “Stubborn Weeds,” Dispatches from Quarantine, SF Creative Writing Institute
• 2020: “Stubborn Weeds,” San Francisco Public Library Poem of the Day, May 14, 2020.
• Summer 2019: “Zembu Arigatai,” Soundings East
• March 2019: “More Than A Number,” Sparkle + Blink 89, Quiet Lightning
• Sep 2016. “The Beggar Woman’s Baby,” Eleven Eleven 21
• Spring 2016: “The Elephant Hair,” AWAY Journal
• Winter 2015: Persimmon Tree online
• Nov 2015: Mother of All Stories on-line (Asian Women United) online
• Nov 2015: Whirlwind Magazine #6
• Aug 2015: “One Woman’s Hell… A Gentrifier’s Lament,” Poor Magazine
• Aug 2015 Whirlwind Magazine #5
• June 2014: “The Sansei Perspective,” Discover Nikkei online
Literary Residencies
• 2018: Hypatia-in-the-Woods, Shelton, WA
• 2018: Newnan Art Rez, Newnan GA
• 2017: Jentel Literary Residency, Banner, Wyoming
• 2017: Associate Writer in Prose with Mitchell S. Jackson, Atlantic Center for the Arts
• 2016: Associate Writer in Fiction with Porochista Khakpour, Atlantic Center for the Arts
• 2009: Activist Arts Retreat, Amed, Bali, Indonesia, Genny Lim
• 2010: Case Riva Writer's Retreat, Chiaverano, Italy
• 2013: PrecArt Writer's Retreat, Chiaverano, Italy
• 2002: scholarship, first annual A Room of Her Own Writers Retreat
Visual Art (Highlights from solo and group exhibitions from 2007-present)
• Oct-Nov 2018: “Rene’s Garden,” 193-photo installation for Honoring Our Ancestors by Fighting for the Future, Dia de los Muertos, SOMArts Cultural Center
• 2017: “Mission Street [Past•Present•Future Tense],” 165-photo installation, Dia de Los Muertos group
show, SOMArts Cultural Center
• 2017: 230-image photo montage and “Sixth Street Needle Exchange” sound installation, To Be and To
Become: Mission Street group show, California Institute of Integral Studies. https://www.ciis.edu/about-
ciis/the-arts-at-ciis/arts-at-ciis-events/to-be-and-to-become-mission-streeet-san-francisco Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F38yQG-KomE
• May 2017: 4 photocollages about the incarceration, Shifting Movements: Art Inspired by Yuri Kochiyama,
Asian American Women Artists Association, SOMArts.
• Oct 2016: “ The Spirit of the Mission,” a fifty-photo installation for A Promise Not to Forget: Día de los
Muertos, SOMArts http://www.somarts.org/shizueseigelartistinterview/
• 2011-2013: Laramie: A Gem City Atlas, collaborative art-map project with Rebecca Solnit and University
of Wyoming MFA Creative Writing Program) traveled to four venues: Univ. of Wyoming Art Museum,
Laramie, WY; Univ. of Wyoming Library; California Institute for Integral Studies and Thoreau Center for
Sustainability, San Francisco.
• 2012 solo show: Laramie Mapping Myths and Realities, Thoreau Center, San Francisco.
• 2012 solo: Ephemeral Allure; Eternal Struggle. UC Santa Barbara Women's Center.
• 2010 solo: Double Vision: A Celebration of Hybridity, UC Santa Barbara Multicultural Center
• 2010: Distillations: Meditations on the Japanese American Experience, Arts & Consciousness Gallery,
John F. Kennedy University, Berkeley, CA, 2010.
Work experience
• 2002-present: Writer, visual artist, cartographer, creative writing workshop facilitator on project basis
1998-2001, Editor/Art Director, Nikkei Heritage magazine, National Japanese Historical Society
• 1995-1997. Acting Coordinator/Media Specialist, PHREDA HIV prevention project, University of California
San Francisco/Centers for Disease Control
• 1984-1991, Art Director, J. Walter Thompson, DDB Needham, Charles Schwab, Gardner, Wells
Marketing. Clients included Chevron, Kaiser Permanente, ComputerLand, KTVU-Channel 2, Fine Arts
Museums of San Francisco, Wells Fargo Bank.
Selected Writing Workshops facilitated
• on-going monthly since 2015: Write Now! for writers of color at San Francisco Main Library, San Francisco
African American Historical & Cultural Society and National Japanese American Historical Society (initially funded by SFAC Individual Artist Commission)
• on-going monthly since 2013: Reverie Writers
• A Place of One's Own, a Place In the World, Asian American Women Artists Association, Thoreau Center
for Sustainability,
• 2014: Writing from the Heart, San Francisco YMCA, 6-week series
• 2006-2009: Senior Asian American Women Writers, weekly, Japanese Community and Cultural Center
• 2006: Japanese American Memoir, weekly, J-Sei Senior Center, Berkeley, CA
• 2003-2004: Lasting Memories: A Memoir Group for Asian American Men, weekly, Japanese Community
and Cultural Center
Education
College
1981-1984: Academy of Art College, Advertising and Illustration
1979-1981: College of Marin, Painting and Printmaking
Week-Long or Multi-Week Writing Workshops
2020: Navigating Poetics, Truong Tran, Kearny Street Workshop
2020: Mendocino Coast Writers Conference
2019: Omnidawn Poetry Conference
2018: Memoir, Elmaz Abinader, VONA/Voices
2017: Prose, S. Mitchell Jackson, Atlantic Center for the Arts
Travel, Katherine Harer, Writing Salon
2016: Writing for Artists & Activists, Faith Adiele, Writers Grotto
Poetry Maw Shein Win, Writers Grotto
2015: Memoir, Zoe Carter, Writers Grotto
2016: Fiction with Porochista Khakpour, Atlantic Center for the Arts
2015: Residency, David Mura, VONA/Voices=
2014: Memoir, Memoir Continuation 1 & 2, Kathleen McClung, Writing Salon
2013: Memoir, Faith Adiele, VONA/Voices
Intro to Memoir, Memoir Continuation 1 & 2, Kathleen McClung, Writing Salon,
2009: Poetry, Activist Artists Retreat, Amed, Bali, Indonesia, Genny Lim
2004: Poetry, From the Margins, Truong Tran, Intersection for the Arts,
2004: Kearny Street Workshop, Fiction, Junse Kim
2003: All-Genre, Truong Tran, Kearny Street Workshop:
2003: Memoir, Anne Finger, A Room of Her Room Writers Retreat, Ghost Ranch, NM
2002: Prose, Writing Out of the Dark, Margo Perin