Lawson Inada

Lawson Fusao Inada (born 1938 in Fresno, California) is an American poet and was the fifth poet laureate of the U.S. state of Oregon.
Early life.
Inada is a third-generation Japanese American ("Sansei"). As a child, Inada and his family were interned during World War II.
Inada became a jazz musician, and this affected his writing. Inada cites jazz and his time in the internment camps as his chief influences as a poet. He studied writing at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Oregon, and the University of Iowa.
Career.
He joined the faculty of Southern Oregon University in 1966.
In 1994, Inada's "Legends from Camp" won an American Book Award; and he was awarded poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.
In 2006 Inada was named Oregon's poet laureate.