Itsuko Ishikawa is a committed anti-war and anti-nuclear activist poet, born in Tokyo. Many of her poems focus on the legacies of the Asia-Pacific War (1931–45), including the ‘comfort women’ issues. The poem that appears in this issue of Stand is published in her twelfth solo-poetry collection, Rongelap Atoll (2009). Rina Kikuchi is a poetry scholar and the editor/translator of Poet to Poet: Contemporary Women Poets from Japan (Recent Work Press, co-edited by Jen Crawford, 2017). She is an associate professor at Shiga University and an adjunct associate professor at University of Canberra.

Itsuko Ishikawa's work featured in Stand Magazine comprises one contribution of poetry.