RECORDED 5/18/15: I really enjoyed speaking with a group of Mixed/Irish writers who discussed the spectrum of what it means to their writing and what they claim as their heritage when Mixed Irish-ness is a discussion that the Irish are just beginning to explore.  You can listen to the episode here, or download the episode from itunes.-Heidi Durrow

Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu is an Irish-Japanese psychologist, author, and storyteller. Born in Tokyo, raised in Massachusetts, educated at Harvard, his life has been between Japan and the U.S., exploring borders of cultural identities. He uses this life experience in his writing about mixed heritage for both academic and general audiences, most recently in When Half is Whole and a blog for Psychology Today. He teaches mindfulness and narrative psychology at Stanford. @drshigematsu

 Clare Ramsaran was born and raised in England, but checks “other” on forms when asked to define her heritage – or creates her own category of “Indo-Guyanese/Irish”.  She is an alumna of the VONA Voices workshop and is an MFA candidate at the University of San Francisco. She is currently working on a novel about two Caribbean brothers who join other young immigrants to London in their pursuit of love (of the inter-racial and queer varieties) and justice. She blogs for Mixed Remixedand her writing has been published in anthologies in the USA and England, and in journals including the St Sebastian Review. Visit her blog at: clareramsaran.blogspot.com

Dylan Amaro-McIntyre is a reformed former misanthrope who finds beauty in the details because the big picture terrifies him. He draws words and writes pictures. He also writes poems, sometimes well. He has been published in various poetry collections and has been featured as a performer at well known venues throughout the Bay Area. On Thursday nights he binge eats peanut butter; he recently discovered Macadamia butter and it is ruining his life.

Caroline Mei-Lin Mar was born and raised in the Bay Area. Carrie is a queer mixed-race Chinese-Irish femme who was raised to cause trouble by her radical lefty parents (her first childhood St. Patrick’s Day parade participation involved staging a pro-IRA “die-in”). She currently works as a secondary Special Education teacher and owes great gratitude to her students and colleagues for what they teach her every day. A recent graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College and an alumna of the Voices at VONA workshop, Carrie is seeking publication of her first book, Special Education. Her poems have been published in The Collagist, Shadowgraph, As Us, and others.