Michiko Oishi was born in Tokyo, Japan, and has lived in Montpelier since 1997. She has been teaching Japanese language and culture through Champlain College, UVM’s Asian Studies Outreach Program and high schools in Central Vermont. Before coming to Vermont, she worked with relief and repatriation programs in Laos, Thailand and Japan for UNHCR and the Japan International Volunteer Center. Her first bilingual Haiku/Tanka book, co-translated with Judy Chalmer, Red Fish Alphabet was published in Tokyo and her second book Deepening Snow was published by Plowboy Press in Vermont.
Words in the Woods is a partnership between Vermont State Parks and Vermont Humanities Council that features live nature-based poetry readings in state parks across Vermont.