A Fire Is Burning It Is in Me: The Life and Writings of Michiyo Fukaya

by Michiyo Fukaya, Gwendolyn L. Shervington (Editor)

Michiyo Fukaya, a Japanese-American lesbian poet and activist, was also a single mother of a mixed-race daughter, living on welfare, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and adult sexual assault, and a woman of color in an all white environment. This collection portrays her life and that of a concerned lesbian community which was deeply affected by her presence. Edited by L. Shervington and Winner of Best of Small Press.

Genres: Poetry, LGBT, Japan, Lesbian, Disability, Memoir, Nonfiction

181 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1996

Reviews

[fausto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is by far one of the most moving and touching book I ever read.

Michiyo's life and work was shaped by all the abuses and anger that life gave her. A survivor of incest, rape, psychiatrical abuse, and a profound racism. Michiyo work really touches all the fibers of the body and drive you into tear when you are thinking on all those brilliant women that this unjust society had took.

[maya]

extremely difficult to rate. it was very refreshing to be able to find something to read about lesbian activists in cities more similar to mine - everything that has been published and re-printed and easily accessible feels like it's just NYC/LA area over and over. these are the types of people i'd like to read more about, women who were openly gay in places where it was never necessarily en vogue and where the activism was often small scale but impactful. i also feel like the first hand accounts of 70s/80s movements tend to be from white women and i really appreciated being able to add michiyo's perspective of these movements to my knowledge

however, i did find the editing of this poor. there was often little to no context to certain pieces, pieces in an order that i felt purposefully obstructed any semblance of a timeline or narrative, etc.

[Carey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a completely unexpected library find, and once again I’m grateful for the wide variety of my local library’s collection. After seeing the small number of reviews this has, I genuinely have no idea how they acquired this book, but I am still grateful they did! A Fire is Burning It is Me is part biography and part poetry collection. It reflects on the life and work of Michiyo Fukaya, assembled nearly a decade after her death by friends and collaborators who clearly cared deeply about her legacy.

There is something profoundly moving about this project in concept alone: friends coming together to preserve the memory of someone whose life was marked by both artistic passion and significant struggle. Gwendolyn L. Shervington’s role as editor feels especially important here; it’s evident that an immense amount of love, care, and emotional labor went into shaping this collection. Fukaya emerges as a complex figure, someone whose life was deeply affected by trauma and mental health challenges, but who also had an intense desire for community, connection, and political engagement.

That said, I struggled with the execution. In terms of organization, the collection often feels fragmented. Many pieces are presented with little to no contextual framing, and the sequencing seems to deliberately resist any clear timeline which made it hard to understand how certain events affected each other. Additionally, certain moments and biographical details are repeated multiple times, while others feel frustratingly under-explored. While I can understand this choice being possibly used as a reflection of Fukaya's transient life, moving constantly between people, places, and projects, leaving behind fragments rather than a neat story, the attempt to assemble them into the story of her life ultimately felt clumsy.

Even so, there is much here that I found compelling. The collection offers a fascinating glimpse into LGBTQ+ activism and early attempts at intersectional feminism in small-town contexts during the 1970s and 1980s, which is something we often don't see enough of in the mainstream. Fukaya’s letters and speeches were particular highlights for me, especially her direct engagement with local politics and her resistance to the way her community viewed LGBTQ+ people. These pieces give the clearest sense of her voice, her convictions, and the urgency of her work. The poetry was a bit of a mixed bag for me, but it's such a limited selection of her work that I don't feel I could fully be immersed with her poetic style and voice.

Overall, this is an imperfect yet meaningful collection that may frustrate readers looking for cohesion or rigid narrative structure, but that still succeeds in honoring a life defined by care, activism, and creative intensity.

[Kenneth Armond]

This is a brilliant tour de force of internal exploration. Fukaya san looks at herself objectively. It is a vision which she is not comfortable with. One which society has not accepted. We feel her angst and ride along wishing that she finds solace.