"Lena (Sunada-Matsumura) Newlin, in “Half Empty, Half Full,” experiments with the concept of “halfness” as much more than a fraction, much more than a falling short, and in doing so plumbs the emotional dimensions of her identity as a mixed-race person. A searching essay, the yearning for an elusive clarity is palpable in it, and its flashes of insight are exhilarating."
-Richard Hoffman, Nonfiction Editor, Solstice Literary Magazine

Creative Writing Publications

• Lost and Found (Jan 12, 2026) Wyohistory.org
• God, Guns, and Baseball (Nov 2025) The Milk House Rural Writing Collective. Winner of Best Essay in the 2025 Best in Rural Writing Contest, judged by Jamie Guiney
• Beer Busts and Student Behavior (Aug 25, 2025)  Discover History, the Blog of the American Heritage Center
• Haiku to 5k (June 2025) Like the Wind Magazine, Issue #45. London, England.
• Conversations With Headstones, An Excerpt (May 2024) MFA Thesis Artist Statement
• What Will Endure. (Jan 16, 2024) New York Times  
• An Unsent Letter to My Nisei Grandfather-Part 1. (Sept 19, 2023) Discover Nikkei  
• An Unsent Letter to My Nisei Grandfather-Part 2. (Sept 26, 2023) Discover Nikkei  
• An Unsent Letter to My Nisei Grandfather-Part 3. (Oct 3, 2023) Discover Nikkei  
• *Heart Mountain. (Oct. 18, 2022) High Desert Journal (*Pushcart Prize Nominee)  
• Half Empty, Half Full (2022) Spring Issue. Solstice Literary Magazine  ​

Photo, Video, and Audio Storytelling

• Eli's Autism Story: A video documentary (Nov 25, 2025)
• Crystal City Pilgrimage: A short film (Oct 2025)
• Conversations with Headstones: A Podcast (Oct 25, 2025) WyoHistory.org
• Peace Corps Stories and Lessons (Nov 2025) Re-Storying the West, Mellon Foundation
• Sobering Up to Help Others (Nov 2025) Re-Storying the West, Mellon Foundation
• Storycorps interview with Doug Newlin (July 2022)
• “Wyoming is our Home” (May 9, 2025) Photo byline, Wyoming Public Media  

Anthologies

• God, Guns, and Baseball, 2026 Best in Rural Writing Anthology by The Milk House. Edited by Samantha Rogers and Ryan Dennis. Galway, Ireland.
• Picture Bride, (2021) 10th Anniversary Anthology of DoveTales: A Writing for Peace Literary Journal of the Arts 

Book Reviews

• Review of Mira Shimabukuro’s Relocating Authority: Japanese Americans Writing to Redress Mass Incarceration (May 22, 2023). Enculturation: a journal of rhetoric, writing, and culture https://enculturation.net/review_relocating_authority ​

Exhibited Writing

• "Obituary" poem on exhibit at Sage Community Gallery (June 3-July 11, 2026), Sheridan, Wyoming.
• "Conversations with Headstones" poem on exhibit through High Iron (2025-2026).

Other People's Writing About Lena

• Kaikan Peruvian magazine (July 2025) pg. 30-31, article by Harumi Nako.  
• Lena Newlin, "Lena (Sunada-Matsumura) Newlin: Intergenerational Resistance, Resilience, and Writing in Wyoming" conducted by Amanda Tewes in 2023, Oral
  History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2024.
  
  
  

Literary representation by Michaela Whatnall of Dystel, Goderich & Bourret, Inc.
for a forthcoming children's nonfiction book.

Get In Touch
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contact me

Photo credits: Lena Newlin
​Copyright 2024