Aubrey holds a Ph.D. in English and has published many articles on twentieth-century poetry. In this essay, Aubrey discusses the themes in Hashimoto's poetry collection The Crane Wife.

Although "What I Would Ask My Husband's Dead Father" only hints at it, Hashimoto is a poet of dual heritage. The Crane Wife reveals her deep connection to Japanese culture, but it also shows that she is also firmly rooted in American culture, particularly the Pacific Northwest area where she has spent all her life.

A number of poems in The Crane Wife take their inspiration from Japanese folktales that Hashimoto uses to subtly probe issues of family relationships and the experience of loss. "The Mirror of Matsuyama," for example, draws on a folktale in which a dying mother gives her daughter a mirror, telling her that whenever she is lonely she must look in the mirror, and...