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Lawson Inada

A Life Story in Poetry

steve boyarsky
jerry hagstrom

IN EARLY 2020, YOU WERE RECOGNIZED BY OREGON WHAT IS YOUR FATHER’S FAMILY HISTORY?
LITERARY ARTS FOR A LIFETIME OF ACHIEVEMENT, LAWSON: My father’s parents landed in California from Japan about 1906
SPECIFICALLY THE C.E.S. (CHARLES ERSKINE SCOTT) as farmers and sharecroppers. His folks worked hard in the strawberry fields
WOOD DISTINGUISHED WRITER AWARD. and they sent him to college, and he became a dentist. When I was born in
LAWSON: Right. Because of COVID there hasn’t been a ceremony, but 1938, he was feeling really good. He had moved to Fresno, started a dental
someone did call to say, “Hey, you’re going to be recognized for a lifetime practice, had a kid, and learned how to play golf. He named me for a golfer.
achievement in writing.” [Chuckling] How about that, a lifetime achievement There were two great golfers he liked. One was Horton Smith, the other was
for poetry! Lawson Little. My Mom said she liked the name Lawson better than Horton.
I could have been Horton. [Laughter]
ONE REVIEWER SAID YOUR WRITINGS “REFLECT A
DRY WIT, A RHYTHM OF JAZZ, AND AN OBSERVANT SHARE A BIT ABOUT THE INTERNMENT CAMPS YOU WRITE
AND ARTICULATE MIND THAT UNDERSTANDS REALITY, ABOUT.
ILLUSION, AND METAPHOR.” LAWSON: In all my Dad’s optimism, poor guy, we got sent to the camps.
LAWSON: If I could do all that, hey man! [Laughter] All right, there’s I was an infant when World War II broke out. I was just leading a nice happy
probably some dry wit. There could be humor. I write mostly poetry. Poetry... little life. Had a dog and we had a nice little house and had a lot of friends
is like writing a song. I like to use my sense of history and my own experiences in the neighborhood. Next thing I know, we were moved into the county
to describe things. fairgrounds. We lost our dog, Jimmy, it was crowded, chaotic, and confusing.
I was four years old and didn’t know what questions to ask. Then we were put
on a train and ended up in Arkansas in a muddy camp by the Mississippi River.
HOW MANY POETRY BOOKS HAVE YOU PUBLISHED? I never understood why. From there, we were moved to a windblown camp in
LAWSON: I’ve published three books of poetry: Before the War, Legends from Colorado. After the war, we went back to Fresno.
Camp, and Drawing the Line. But I’ve also published multicultural and Asian
American literature anthologies and collections.
AND YOUR HOUSE AND YOUR DAD’S DENTAL PRACTICE?
LAWSON: Oh, it was all gone. Everybody in America was suffering because
WHEN DID YOU DISCOVER YOUR WRITING VOICE? the whole country had been through the war and deprivation. My uncles and
LAWSON: My mom was the eldest cousins all served in the U.S. Army. During the post-war recovery period,
child in a family of five. Her father everybody was trying to make a few dollars and get some housing. My dad
owned the Fresno Fish Market. He was a picked grapes for I don’t know how long, then he got his dental equipment
merchant and an immigrant, but he was out of storage and managed to restart his practice. By the time we returned to
really big on education. My mother was California, the demographics had really changed.
encouraged to go to college, she went
clear over to Santa Barbara State in the
1930s and got a degree in teaching. She WHAT WAS LIFE LIKE GROWING UP IN FRESNO?
couldn’t get a teaching job because they LAWSON: There’s Fresno and then there’s West Fresno. Fresno is
weren’t hiring, and she was a Japanese divided by the railroad tracks. The railroad had Chinese workers. They said,
American. About that time, she met “Okay, you Chinese workers, you live over here, and you other workers,
my dad and they got married. She was you live on this side.” So West Fresno became known as Chinatown.
an English minor and an education West Fresno was this huge blend of “people of color” that I grew up with.
major. She always read to me and had
me recite to my relatives. I was always All of my classmates and friends were ethnic or colored. When you
good at English and writing. She gave me visited their homes, the family was speaking another language. In my high
confidence in my writing. school graduation class, I had 80 African American classmates, 40 Latino

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