Ryka Aoki on Fighting Back with Pleasure

“This world is not a good place sometimes. It can be a really rough place sometimes. But you know what, it’s also a great place. It’s also a place full of compassion and love and noodles and ducks, and there’s always donuts.”

Ryka Aoki is a poet, composer, and teacher and author of Seasonal Velocities, He Mele a Hilo (A Hilo Song), Why Dust Shall Never Settle Upon This Soul and The Great Space Adventure. Her latest novel, Light from Uncommon Stars, is out now from Tor Books. Ryka is also a former national judo champion and the founder of the International Transgender Martial Arts Alliance. She is also a professor of English at Santa Monica College.