Ryka Aoki

RYKA AOKI (she/her) is a poet, composer, teacher, and novelist. Her latest novel, Light From Uncommon Stars , was an Alex, SCKA, and Otherwise Award winner, and was also a finalist for the Hugo, Locus, and Ignyte Awards. Ryka is a two-time Lambda Literary Award finalist for her collections Seasonal Velocities , and Why Dust Shall Never Settle Upon This Soul , and her first novel, He Mele a Hilo , was callled one of the "10 Best Books Set in Hawaii" by Bookriot . She has been recognized by the...See more

RYKA AOKI (she/her) is a poet, composer, teacher, and novelist. Her latest novel, Light From Uncommon Stars , was an Alex, SCKA, and Otherwise Award winner, and was also a finalist for the Hugo, Locus, and Ignyte Awards. Ryka is a two-time Lambda Literary Award finalist for her collections Seasonal Velocities , and Why Dust Shall Never Settle Upon This Soul , and her first novel, He Mele a Hilo , was callled one of the "10 Best Books Set in Hawaii" by Bookriot . She has been recognized by the California State Senate for "extraordinary commitment to the visibility and well-being of Transgender people," and her work has appeared or been recognized in publications including Vogue , Elle , Bustle , Autostraddle , PopSugar , and Buzzfeed , as well as the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. She was also honored to work with the American Association of Hiroshima Nagasaki A-Bomb Survivors, where two of her compositions were adopted as the organization's "songs of peace." She has an MFA in creative writing from Cornell University, and is currently a professor of English at Santa Monica College. See less