Gail Tsukiyama was born in San Francisco, California to a Chinese mother from Hong Kong and a Japanese father from Hawaii. She attended San Francisco State University where she received both her Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Master of Arts Degree in English with the emphasis in Creative Writing. She is the author of nine novels, including Women of the Silk, The Samurai's Garden, The Color of Air, and her latest, The Brightest Star. She has been the recipient of the Academy of American Poets Award, the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence, and the Asia Pacific Leadership Award from the Center of the Pacific Rim and the Ricci Institute. She was one of fifty authors chosen by the Library of Congress to participate in the first National Book Festival in Washington D.C. and has been a guest speaker at International Literary Festivals in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, England, and Toronto. A resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, she has taught at San Francisco State University, University of California, Berkeley, and Mills College.

For more information call Dr. Sutton, Director of the Exile Studies Program, at (305)-348-1270.