My name is Yurina Yoshikawa (née Ko), and I am a writer based in Nashville, Tennessee. As of June 2023, I am the Director of Education at The Porch Writers’ Collective. 

A little about me…

I grew up moving back and forth between Tokyo and California, and I spent most of my life feeling like a Japanese person living abroad or a foreigner living in Japan. I have a B.A. in philosophy from Barnard College and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Columbia University, where I taught undergraduate writing. I also worked in the book publishing industry in both editorial and publicity departments. In the summer of 2017, I made the big move to Nashville, Tennessee with my husband, where I started working as a creative writing instructor at The Porch. My writing has appeared in The Atlantic, NPR, Lit Hub, The Japan Times, The New Inquiry, and elsewhere. I was a 2019-2020 OZ Art Wire Fellow, the winner of the 2020 Tennessee True Stories Contest, and a recipient of the Tennessee Arts Commission literary fellowship. In 2023 I was accepted to the Hewnoaks Residency and the Baldwin For The Arts Fellowship. 

As an emerging novelist, I am represented by Martha Wydysh at Trident Media Group. 

I serve on the boards of two nonprofit organizations: the Nashville Philharmonic Orchestra and API Middle Tennessee. I wrote the copy for the social justice campaign, More Than A Menu. Throughout 2022-23, I worked as a Production Coordinator on a documentary film by Joe Gomez and Vanita Joines at Cerulean, called Room To Play. I also serve as an associate of the U.S.-Japan Council, where I am involved in the Shin-Issei group, the Southeast Regional group, and the Artists & Creatives group. 

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In Progress: 

The Yokos: A novel (represented by Martha Wydysh at Trident Media Group)

Published: 

Screen Porch

How Classical Music Can Unlock the Creative Writer’s Brain, January 17, 2024

Not Invisible, Just Scattered: Reflecting on the Inaugural Nashville AAPI Writers Showcase, July 6, 2023

Litro Magazine

Fox in the Snow, January 22, 2023
A short story, part of the Yoko in Nashville universe

The Atlantic

Seven Books About How Homes Shape Our Life, January 13, 2023

Vol. 1 Brooklyn

Still, November 27, 2022
A short story about a woman in New York trying to find stillness in a noisy world.

The Margins, a publication of Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW)

The Mold, September 23, 2022
Flash fiction piece, part of the Yoko in Nashville universe

Chapter 16, a publication of Humanities Tennessee

We, the Swimmers: Julie Otsuka’s perspective-bending novel should be our call to action, September 20, 2022
Book review of Julie Otsuka’s The Swimmers

Lit Hub

Streaming Autofiction: On Nathan Fielder’s Search for Authenticity in The Rehearsal – Yurina Yoshikawa Places the HBO Series in Context with Its Literary Predecessors, September 9, 2022

NPR

5 translated books from Japan to soothe battered souls this fall, August 30, 2022

Edible Nashville

Shop Like a Japanese Cook, Sept/Oct 2022

Chapter 16, a publication of Humanities Tennessee

Outwardly Fine, Inwardly Lost: Katie Kitamura’s International Novel Hits Close to Home, August 23, 2022
Book review of Intimacies: A novel
Syndicated in Chattanooga Times Free Press, August 27, 2022

The Japan Times

‘How Do You Live?’: Timeless lessons for a new generation, May 7, 2022
Book review of Genzaburo Yoshino’s 1937 classic, translated into English for the first time by Bruno Navasky

Edible Nashville 

Sea to Table: Aloha Fish Co. delivers fresh seafood to landlocked Nashvillians, April 26, 2022
Interview feature with Jennifer & Jerry Cline of Aloha Fish Co.

Literary Hub

Yoko Tawada Captures the Unique Joys of Having an Uncategorizable Identity, April 25, 2022
An essay about Yoko Tawada’s novel Scattered All Over the Earth and what it meant to me as someone who doesn’t easily fit into a national or ethnic identity.

All Our Tomorrows

My Co-Parent Totoro, April 5, 2022
An essay about bicultural/bilingual parenting (and of course the iconic movie My Neighbor Totoro)

Chapter 16

Singin’ in the Rain, February 25, 2022
An essay about my love for karaoke

The Tennessean (Newspaper owned by Gannett/USA Today)

Travel restrictions continue as does COVID-19 and Omicron variant (originally titled “Travel Crib, Never Used”), December 29, 2021
Op-ed about the sacrifice my family made in light of Omicron, and the ways I have adapted to connecting with family members remotely over the last decade. 

Reckoning: Tennessee Writers on 2020, September 2021 (Buy at this link)

The Yokos
A short story about a woman coming to terms with her mother’s last days while living apart from her, in the context of everything happening around December 2020. 

Nashville Scene

Muscle Memory: On the pleasures of trusting my instincts in the kitchen, July 29, 2021
A personal essay for their “Vodka Yonic” series (featuring women and nonbinary writers) 

Waxing & Waning Presents: The Tennessee Tempest Edition, March 2021 (Buy the issue here)

The Magic We Create
An essay about living in Nashville through the pandemic of 2020, my long-distance relationship with my mother in Tokyo, and the parallels between the natural disasters of Tennessee and Japan. Runner-up in the Tennessee Tempest Contest.

The Pinch, Vol 40.2, Fall 2020 (Buy the issue here)

Invader
A short story about a Japanese woman who takes a business trip to Naoshima Island. Runner-up in The Pinch Literary Awards, judged by Bryan Washington, who commented: “Invader” excavated the middle ground between belonging and longing, branching the two states and weaving a narrative for a path forward.

Belmont Story Review, Vol 5: Longing

Umbrellas on a Sunny Day, Summer 2020
An essay about being a child during the 1995 Tokyo Sarin Gas Attacks, motherhood, innocence, and Murakami’s Underground.

Chapter 16

Grasshopper, January 17, 2020
First-place winner of the Tennessee True Stories Essay Contest, judged by Mary Laura Philpott

Hyphen Magazine

The Story of a New Name, June 10, 2019
An essay about all the times I’ve changed my name, most recently from Ko to Yoshikawa.

The New Inquiry

Little Big Eater Girl, January 18, 2016
An essay about Japanese female competitive eaters and eating disorders.

Manufactured Response, April 22, 2014
An essay about responses to the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Columbia Political Review

Memory and Pacifism, October 31, 2010
A survey on the various responses to the U.S. military base presence in Okinawa, Japan.

Change Japan Can Believe In, October 18, 2009
A survey on the various responses to PM Yukio Hatoyama’s victory in the 2009 election.

Columbia Daily Spectator, regular columnist for a series called “2+2=5”

An expert on nothing, April 27, 2010

Brave new reader, April 13, 2010

The carnivore manifesto, March 30, 2010

The elimination of Women’s History Month, March, 2110, March 9, 2010

The gold standard, February 23, 2010

A romance of many dimensions, February 9, 2010

Frontiers of philosophy, January 26, 2010

There will be time, December 13, 2009

Can’t read my poker face, November 29, 2009

A matter of taste, November 15, 2009

A cosmic consciousness, October 18, 2009

Can machines produce art?, October 4, 2009

Why not wonder?, September 20, 2009

I have a newsletter where I talk about being Japanese, living in Nashville, motherhood, books, etc. You can sign up for it here.

The Nashville Scene featured The Porch on April 2, 2024 in anticipation of our annual fundraiser event.

In the past year-and-a-half, The Porch has launched writer affinity groups spearheaded by Yurina Yoshikawa, director of education for The Porch. Groups like Nashville AAPI Writers, Nashville Black Storytellers, Parent Writers, Latine Creative Collective, LGBTQ+ Writers and more gather once a month to write and share their work with one another. 

“I give major credit to Yurina for really pushing the affinity groups forward and making it happen and believing in it as a way to grow The Porch community at large,” says Felts. “I would love to see all of those groups continue to flourish.”

On December 13, 2023, I moderated a panel on “Protecting Art Made by Real People in the Age of AI,” an event that was co-sponsored by The Porch and the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville. The panelists included Carla Christina Contreras (Nashville President of SAG-AFTRA), Kelly McKernan (visual artist), Franklin Graves (professor and lawyer with an expertise on IP and AI), and Lynn Morrow (entertainment attorney). A full recording can be found here.

On November 14, 2023, I spoke as a panelist on This is Nashville, a show on WPLN (Nashville Public Radio) to chime in about the end of the Hollywood Writers’ Strike and its implications on artists including creative writers. (Catch me around the 12-min mark.)

On November 8, 2023, I co-organized and MC’d a special session during the annual U.S.-Japan Council Conference in Washington, D.C. on the topic of Art as Currency, featuring Japanese and Japanese-American artists of various disciplines.

On October 18, 2023, I helped organize and co-MC’d the inaugural Asian Fall Harvest Festival in the heart of Nashville. The event was a collaboration between The Porch, Shoes Off Entertainment, and API Middle Tennessee. There was a boba bar, a full Korean dinner and classy mooncakes from Mama Yang and Daughter, with entertainment from various API singer-songwriters and creative writers.

On September 7, 2023, I moderated one of my favorite annual events, the Women’s Leadership Forum hosted by the Japan-America Society of Tennessee. The theme of the year was “Serving Where You Are: Women Making a Difference in their Respective Roles,” and the panelists included Chika Seidel, Lindi Berrones, and Sarah Lingo. The keynote speaker was award-winning anchor Tracy Kornet.

The Nashville AAPI Writers Showcase took place on Sunday, May 21, 2023 from 4-6 p.m. at The Forge. MC’d by writer and Porch instructor Yurina Yoshikawa, this inaugural event celebrated the depth and diversity among writers in Nashville who identify as Asian American Pacific Islanders. The lineup included poetry by James Kyson, Nina Coyle, Jing Geng, and Jenny Zheng; fiction by Jackie Richardson; a short play by Josh Inocalla; and essays by Steve Haruch, Tomiko Peirano, and JR Robles. Topics included family, names, adolescence, mockingbirds, language, the universe, identity, and more. The event was featured as a Critics’ Pick in the Nashville Scene, and we saw over 70 attendees in the room. The event was co-sponsored by API Middle Tennessee and The Porch Writers’ Collective. All in all, it was a perfect evening to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month and Nashville’s vibrant literary scene.

Nashville AAPI Writers Meet-Up at the Porch HQ. We eat Asian snacks, get to know each other, do a short creative writing exercise with the option to share, and talk openly about our dreams and concerns as AAPI writers in Nashville. (The group’s website and Instagram accounts are coming soon!)

On Thursday, September 22, 2022, 6:30 p.m., I moderated the book launch event for my dear friend Malaka Gharib, author of It Won’t Always Be Like This, at Parnassus Bookstore.

On August 22, 2022, I was a guest on Hana Lee’s podcast Project Between about Third Culture Kids. Available wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify (link here). I had a great time chatting with Hana about the TCK experience, Yoko Tawada, Doraemon, etc.

On February 10, 2022, 7 p.m. CT, I participated in Storytelling for The Bloom Stage (virtual appearance). The Bloom Stage is a quarterly event that brings a blend of storytelling, poetry, music and art to the Murfreesboro stage at Walnut House. The series is produced by Kara J Kemp with assistance from Kory Wells, and this show is co-produced with C. A. Williams. More info here