David Mura

David Mura is a poet, creative nonfiction writer, critic, playwright and performance artist. A Sansei or third generation Japanese American, Mura has written two memoirs: Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei (Anchor-Random), which won a 1991 Josephine Miles Book Award from the Oakland PEN and was listed in the New York Times Notable Books of Year, and Where the Body Meets Memory: An Odyssey of Race, Sexuality and Identity (1996, Anchor).

Mura has a B.A. from Grinnell College and an MFA in creative writing from Vermont College. He has taught at the University of Minnesota, St. Olaf College, the Loft, Hamline U., the U. of Oregon and the Voices of the Nation Association writers’ conference. He co-founded the Asian American Renaissance, an Asian American arts organization and served as its artistic director. He teaches at Hamline University, VONA (Voices of the Nation Association), and the Stonecoast MFA program.