Humboldt alum Tony Koji Wallin-Sato publishes new book

Tony Koji Wallin-Sato, a well-known local treasure who’s not just a writer but also an educator and advocate for the formerly incarcerated, came to Humboldt to share his new book.  

Wallin-Sato read from a collection of recent works at North Town books on Friday, Jan. 24. A full house of friends, colleagues, supporters, and fans attended the reading. Poet and Activist Sam Wilson and legendary DJ and Activist Sista Soul read as well. 

He published two books in 2024, Bamboo on The Tracks (Finishing Line Press) and most recently Okaierinasai (Wet Cement Press). Wallin-Sato draws inspiration from his life experiences.

Okaierinasai, which translated from Japanese means ‘returning home’ is a lyrical and personal work that incorporates excerpts from the Zen teachings of Dojen into his poems. 

“I would write a poem and be thinking about this text. I would take an excerpt and write a poem in between, the excerpts are within the poem itself,” Wallin-Sato said. “I’m really going back and forth between my own experiences and what comes up.” 

An overarching theme of the book is Wallin-Sato’s experiences living in Humboldt County.  

“I’ve always had a sense of home here and I’ve always felt like I could be vulnerable here; it helped me be vulnerable in other places, I always feel like I have roots here. Living here in this version of myself created a whole new atmosphere,” Wallin-Sato said. 

Wallin-Sato, himself a formerly incarcerated person, has been writing from a very young age. From the complexity of growing up ‘hapa’ and his Japanese-American ancestral lineage, to periods of homelessness as a teenager, prison and his struggles with drug addiction, he found a way to change the course of his life through higher education, Zen practice, and finding genuine support and community in abolitionist work. 

As a CPH alumni who first transferred as a journalism major, Wallin-Sato was already involved in organizations created to help formerly incarcerated individuals receive an education through the Junior College and CSU systems. He was initially reluctant to become the face of similar programs at CPH, but decided to get involved when he recognized a need. 

 “I was looking for programs for myself”, Wallin-Sato said. “I had met students on campus who were also formerly incarcerated and so I knew that there was a need for support and I actually was going to write a story about it”. 

Through seeking resources for himself he inevitably became a source of support and help for others by developing a student club and the Humboldt chapter of Project Rebound, a program that offers services to assist system-impacted students. 

Steve Ladwig, director of Transformative Restorative Education Center (TREC), which houses Project Rebound at CPH and the Bachelor program at Pelican Bay Prison, says that he first met Wallin-Sato as a student seeking a club or program that might give him support.  

“He’s an innovator and an instigator. He came up here to get his education but then realized that there were others in the community who would benefit from the support that he had,” Ladwig said. “He sees a need off in the future and says ‘let’s figure out how to get there’”.

Another speaker at the event, Wilson describes the impact Wallin-Sato has had on his life since they initially met and bonded at a conference. Wilson was at that time aspiring to develop a Project Rebound chapter at Portland State University.

“The second I officially got the job which, was several months later, he got in his car and he drove straight to Portland,” Wilson said. “That’s the kind of guy that Tony is, he got in his car and for some reason just came up and just shared the space with me as a brother in the struggle, who’s been where I’ve been, that meant a lot to me.” 

Wallin-Sato read about intimate experiences of his relationship with his father, gate pickups at Pelican Bay and taking newly released prisoners to the ocean. The event was a testament to the love and support that flows to and from Wallin-Sato, and to the life he is creating.

He is currently working on another book about his travels in Japan.

“It’s more like a letter to my mom, it’s a poetry book but it’s prose. But also with this identity of ‘I’m a felon in Japan’”, Wallin-Sato said. “A lot of stuff comes up, from being assimilated, diasporic, ‘where do we actually belong if we don’t belong here and we don’t belong there.’”

Along with poems being featured in various publications and anthologies, he is also a lecturer at CPH and working at Cal State Long Beach, where he earned a master’s in Creative Writing. 

“I’m building a federal prison education program similar to the one we did at Humboldt and Pelican Bay in Long Beach,” Wallin-Sato said. “We are starting a Project rebound journal. It’s a collaboration between humboldt press and long beach, creating the first ever journal specifically for Project Rebound students. I’m very excited about that.”