Poet Amy Uyematsu was raised in southern California by parents who had been interned in American camps during World War II. She earned her undergraduate degree in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles.
 
Uyematsu’s poems consider the intersection of politics, mathematics, spirituality, and the natural world. She is the author of several poetry collections, including Stone Bow Prayer (2005), Nights of Fire, Nights of Rain (1997), and 30 Miles from J-Town (1992), which won the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize.
 
Uyematsu co-edited the seminal anthology Roots: An Asian American Reader (1971), and her own work has been included in the anthologies Bear Flag Republic: Prose Poems and Poetics from California (2008, edited by Christopher Buckley and Gary Young), The Misread City: New Literary Los Angeles (2003, edited by Scott Timberg and Dana Gioia), and Sister Stew: Fiction and Poetry by Women (1991, edited by Juliet Kono and Cathy Song). She has also collaborated with multimedia artists Joan Watanabe and Roger Shimomura.
 
Uyematsu taught math at Venice High School for more than 25 years before retiring. She lives in Culver City, California.