Patti Kameya
I am a writer, editor, historian, teaching artist, and occasional comedy performer in the Dakota homeland of Saint Paul, Minnesota. My great-grandparents were Okinawan and Japanese sugar plantation laborers in Hawaiʻi. After growing up in Massachusetts and California suburbs, I lived in Japan for six years, and I’ve been based in the Midwest since 1997.
For over a decade, I taught world history and East Asian history in Midwestern universities. Those jobs introduced me to storytelling and comedy performance. They also sparked my interest in connecting stories across time and place from history lectures to my current writing projects.
I find joy in arts and activism. I took creative writing classes at the Loft Literary Center, volunteered as a literacy tutor, and earned a copyediting certificate at UCSD Extended Studies. I volunteer with the education committee of the Japanese American Citizens League and perform comedy with the Funny Asian Women Kollective. Other than that, I like to visit art museums, forage garden weeds, and figure out how to make LEGO structures that stay together.
Patti Kameya 