Brian Komei Dempster is a Sansei (third-generation Japanese American). He received BAs in American ethnic studies and English from the University of Washington and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan. His poems have been published in various journals and anthologies. Dempster is the editor of From Our Side of the Fence: Growing Up in America’s Concentration Camps, which received a 2007 Nisei Voices Award from the National Japanese American Historical Society. His debut book of poems, Topaz, is forthcoming from Four Way Books in fall 2013.  He is a professor of rhetoric and language and a faculty member of Asian Pacific American studies at the University of San Francisco.  Currently, he divides his time between teaching and serving as Director of Administration for the master of arts program in Asia Pacific studies. Read more on his website, briankomeidempster.com.