Joe Tsujimoto was born, raised, and married in New York City, and emigrated to his wife’s home in Hawai`i in 1975.  He earned an M.A. in English at University of Hawai`i.  He has taught at Seabird Hall, Iolani, and Punahou School.  He has published two teacher texts:  Teaching Poetry Writing To Adolescents (NCTE/ERIC) and Lighting Fires:  How the Passionate Teacher Engages Adolescent Writers (Heinemann). He has also published a collection of short fiction, Morningside Heights:  New York Stories (Bamboo Ridge), which won the 2008 Elliot Cades Award for Literature, and was a finalist for the 2010 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing.