Once again the popular Tucson Festival of Books will be held at University of Arizona mall on March 15 and 16. This year Japanese American presenter Dr. Junko Sakoi, Program Coordinator of multicultural curriculum at the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) will be presenting & moderating two workshop panels on March 15.
Her two workshops from TFB website: https://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org/?id=67 (listed below).
“1) Children’s Dialogue about Banned Books
This session focuses on strategies for engaging young children in dialogue about banned books as they interact with banned book displays in a public school library.
Education Room 333: Parent Educator (Seats 44, Wheelchair accessible)
Sat, Mar 15, 10:00 am – 11:00 am
Children
Signing area: Signing Area – Children (following presentation)
Panelist: Junko Sakoi
Moderator: Junko Sakoi
2) Award-Winning Poetry and Verse Novels
The 2024 list of Notable Books in Poetry and Novels in Verse will be presented by the NCTE Excellence in Poetry committee. The committee will discuss ways poetry can invite children to share their perspectives and experiences through language, imagery and format.
Education Room 333: Parent Educator (Seats 44, Wheelchair accessible)
Sat, Mar 15, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Children
Signing area: Signing Area – Children (following presentation)
Panelists: Willeena Booker, Junko Sakoi, April Halprin Wayland, Jongsun Wee
Moderator: Junko Sakoi”
Stay tuned for any updates at that site.
Junko is originally from Shiso-city, Hyogo, Japan and is married to ceramic artist Kazuma Sambe. Her Ph.D. is in Teaching, Learning & Sociocultural Studies, College of Education, at U of A. She has also done several curriculum trainings on the WWII Japanese American internment camps for teachers and students (including recent Day of Remembrance at UA APASA office on Feb. 19, 2025).
The Education Building at UA is at 1430 E. 2nd St between Highland Ave. and Vine Ave. All workshops will be in room 333.
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Indie Author Susan Kiyo Ito will also be at the Tucson Festival of Books on March 15 and 16.
Indie Authors ~ Adult Fiction and Nonfiction
https://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org/?id=369
Indie Authors – Adult Fiction and Nonfiction (Seats 18)
Sat, Mar 15, 1:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Authors: Joanna Barnett, Anna Dalhaimer Bartkowski, Nicki Ehrlich, Poli Flores Jr, Angela Hansen, Monté Hill, Susan Ito, Maggie Jackson, Robert Lay, Susan Luzader, E.S. Magill, Jack Meyer, Leslie O’Sullivan, Francis Gary Powers, Jr, Emily Michel, W. Arthur Toogood, Russell Vanderboom, Debra VanDeventer, Sharon Wahl, Katherine Yakis
Susan Kiyo Ito
“I Would Meet You Anywhere: A Memoir (2023) Mad Creek Books, an Imprint of The Ohio State University Press, Columbus Growing up with adoptive nisei parents, Susan Kiyo Ito knew only that her birth mother was Japanese American and her father white. But finding and meeting her birth mother in her early twenties was only the beginning of her search for answers, history, and identity. Though the two share a physical likeness, an affinity for ice cream, and a relationship that sometimes even feels familial, there is an ever-present tension between them, as a decades-long tug-of-war pits her birth mother’s desire for anonymity against Ito’s need to know her origins, to see and be seen. Along the way, Ito grapples with her own reproductive choices, the legacy of the Japanese American incarceration experience during World War II, and the true meaning of family. An account of love, what it’s like to feel neither here nor there, and one writer’s quest for the missing pieces that might make her feel whole, I Would Meet You Anywhere is the stirring culmination of Ito’s decision to embrace her right to know and tell her own story. Ito’s decades-long tug-of-war pits her birth mother’s desire for anonymity against Ito’s need to know her origins, to see and be seen. Ito grapples with her own reproductive choices, the legacy of the Japanese American incarceration experience during World War II, and the true meaning of family. An account of love, what it’s like to feel neither here nor there, and one writer’s quest for the missing pieces that might make her feel whole, I Would Meet You Anywhere is the stirring culmination of Ito’s decision to embrace her right to know and tell her own story.”
Separated at Birth: Adoptee Voices
Millions of American adoptees have their own unique stories to tell, and in this session we will hear some of them from two authors who are themselves adoptees. Our panelists will be Marianne Novy, author of “Adoption Memoirs: Inside Stories,” and Susan Kiyo Ito, author of “I Would Meet You Anywhere.”
Koffler Room 216 (Seats 89, Wheelchair accessible)
Sat, Mar 15, 2:30 pm – 3:25 pm
Memoir / Essays / Creative Nonfiction
Signing area: UA Campus Store Book Sales (Mall) (following presentation)
Authors: Susan Kiyo Ito, Marianne Novy
Moderator: Cathy Rivers
Sponsor: Session made possible courtesy of The Stonewall Foundation Fund at the Community Foundation of Southern Arizona
Adoptee Authors, Booth #223 (Seats 1)
Sun, Mar 16, 9:00 am – 11:00 am
Memoir / Essays / Creative Nonfiction
Author: Susan Kiyo Ito
Book:
I Would Meet You Anywhere
A Memoir
Memoir / Essays / Creative Nonfiction
The Ohio State University Press
November 2023
ISBN 9780814258835
262 pages
The author will make this book available for sale at the Author Pavilion during the Festival.