Ronald Phillip Tanaka (1944–2007) was a Japanese-American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and editor.

Life

He was a ''

Sansei is a Japanese and North American English term used in parts of the world (mainly in South America and North America) to refer to the children of children born to ethnically Japanese emigrants (''Issei'') in a new country of residence, outside o ...

'' (a third-generation Japanese-American), born in the

Poston War Relocation Center The Poston Internment Camp, located in Yuma County (now in La Paz County) in southwestern Arizona, was the largest (in terms of area) of the 10 American concentration camps operated by the War Relocation Authority during World War II. The sit ...

in Arizona in 1944 behind barbed wire. He attended

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists ...

, Claremont and the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

where he took an interdisciplinary Ph.D. Renaissance British Literature, philosophy of language and generative syntax and semantics under the tutelage of Julian C. Boyd. Ronald Tanaka taught English at the

California State University Sacramento California State University, Sacramento (CSUS, Sacramento State, or informally Sac State) is a public university in Sacramento, California, United States. Founded in 1947 as Sacramento State College, it is part of the California State Universit ...

. He was the single parent of two girls, Shinobu and Yoi.

Awards

* 1982

American Book Award The American Book Awards are an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "t ...

for ''The Shino Suite: Japanese-American Poetry'' * California Arts Council * Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission * Foundation of California State University, Sacramento

Works

* * * *''Systems Models for Literary Macro-theory'' (1976) *"On the Metaphysical Foundations of a Sansei Poetics", ''Journal of Ethnic Studies''

Anthologies

* *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanaka, Ronald Phillip 1944 births 2007 deaths American poets of Asian descent Pomona College alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni California State University, Sacramento faculty Japanese-American internees American writers of Japanese descent Writers from Sacramento, California 20th-century American poets American Book Award winners American academics of Japanese descent