Albert Saijo

Albert Fairchild Saijo (February 4, 1926 – June 2, 2011) was a Japanese-American poet associated with the Beat Generation. He and his family were imprisoned as part of the United States government's internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, during which time he wrote editorials on his experiences of internment for his high school newspaper. Saijo went on to serve in the U.S. Army and study at the University of Southern California. Later he became associated with Beat Generation figures including Jack Kerouac, with whom he wrote, traveled and became friends.

Saijo's first solo collection of poetry, ''Outspeaks: A Rhapsody'', was published in 1997. A second collection, ''Woodrat Flat'', was published posthumously in 2015. Saijo was also the author of ''The Backpacker'' (1972), a short book on backpacking, and coauthor of ''Trip Trap'' (1972), a collection of haiku written with Jack Kerouac and Lew Welch. Saijo died in 2011 in Hawaii, where he had lived since the 1990s. Provided by Wikipedia