Nancy Matsumoto

Nancy Matsumoto is an award-winning freelance writer and editor who writes about Japanese American culture and history, agroecology, food sovereignty, food, and drink. A third-generation Japanese American and holder of three sake certifications, she is the co-author of the James Beard award-winning Exploring the World of Japanese Craft Sake (Tuttle Publishing, 2022). Her book, By the Shore of Lake Michigan (UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 2024), a translation of a volume of Japanese tanka poetry published in 1960 by her grandparents Tomiko and Ryokuyō Matsumoto, was awarded an American Book Award in 2025. Her latest book, Reaping What She Sows: How Women Are Rebuilding Our Broken Food System (Melville House Publishing, 2025), tells the stories of women at the forefront of food system change. Other books that Nancy has contributed to include Unforgotten Voices From Heart Mountain: An Oral History of the Incarceration, and Displaced: Manzanar 1942-1945 . As a journalist, she has been a contributor to Discover Nikkei, The Wall Street Journal, Time , Newsweek, TheAtlantic.com, People, Food & Wine, Saveur, The Los Angeles Times, Civil Eats, NPR, The Toronto Globe and Mail, and Air Canada enRoute Magazine, among other publications.