Sally Ito (born 1964) is a Canadian writer, translator, and artist from

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

Career

Ito was born in 1964 in Taber,

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

. She grew up in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

and began writing poetry as a teenager. She currently teaches creative writing at

Canadian Mennonite University Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) is a private Mennonite university located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, with an enrollment of 1607 students. The university was chartered in 1999 with a Shaftesbury campus in southwest Winnipeg, as well as Me ...

. Ito is the author of four books of poetry, ''Frogs in the Rain Barrel'' (1996), ''Season of Mercy'' (1999), ''Alert to Glory'' (2011), and ''Heart's Hydrography'' (2022). She has also published a collection of short stories called ''Floating Shore'' in 1998. She is perhaps best known for her 2018 memoir ''The Emperor's Orphans'' about the 4,000

Japanese Canadians are Canadian citizens of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Canadians are mostly concentrated in Western Canada, especially in the province of British Columbia, which hosts the largest Japanese community in the country with the majority of them living ...

who were repatriated to Japan during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

References

1964 births Living people Writers from Winnipeg Writers from Alberta People from Taber, Alberta Canadian women poets Canadian people of Japanese descent 21st-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian poets {{Canada-writer-stub