"Every book I've written has changed me," noted Canadian poet and novelist Joy Kogawa to Anglican Journal's Sue Careless. "The journey of the pen is a transforming one because when you use the pen as a pick axe as deeply as you can, it will bring up the most amazing jewels, not only of memory but of insight and understanding, and it will transform you." Author of juvenile fiction, adult novels, and poetry, Kogawa is best known for her novel Obasan, a fictionalization of her own experiences as a Japanese Canadian during World War II, and for its sequel, Itsuka. She is also the author of the 1995 novel The Rain Ascends, about child abuse, and of the children's book Naomi's Road. Her several volumes of poetry, written before and after her novels, such as The Splintered Moon, A Choice of Dreams, Jericho Road, and Woman in the...