Yoko Danno. Yoko Danno was born, raised, and educated in Japan.  A graduate of Kobe College, she has been writing poetry solely in English for more than 40 years.  In addition to being a poet, she is also a playwright, translator, and the editor-in-chief of the Ikuta Press in Kobe, Japan.  Her poetry has been published in various journals, anthologies, and magazines in the US, Canada, and Japan, and she is the author of four books of poetry, including Epitaph for Memories published in 2002 by the Bunny and Crocodile Press.  Her fifth book of poetry--a jointly-written poetic experiment with the American poet James C. Hopkins, entitled The Blue Door--will be published in May of 2006 by The Word Works press in Washington, DC.

James C. Hopkins. James C. Hopkins was born in Washington, DC ,and raised in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia. His poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Potomac Review, Baltimore Review, Carriage House Review, and Heliotrope. He has written three books of poetry--a chapbook entitled The Walnut Tree Waits for Its Bees, and a full-length collection published in 2003, entitled Eight Pale Women. His third book of poetry, The Blue Door, a collaborative experiment with the Japanese poet Yoko Danno, will be published by The Word Works in May 2006.  His poems in this issue of The Innisfree Poetry Journal will appear in The Blue Door.  James is  now living in Kathmandu, Nepal, where he is studying Buddhist philosophy and Himalayan languages in a Tibetan monastery.