Hillel Wright died of a heart attack during his sleep in Campbell River, British Columbia, on Aug. 1. He was 73. He spent half of every year in Canada and the other half in Naha, Okinawa, having moved south from Kawasaki with his wife, Shiori Tsuchiya, after the Tohoku triple disaster of March 2011.
Hillel was born in Denver in 1943 and received an M.A. from Southern Illinois University, where he studied under Irish poet Thomas Kinsella and American novelist John Gardner. After quitting the Ph.D. program, he moved to Hawaii to begin a career as a fisherman. He later moved to Canada, working in fishing, forestry and writing while raising a family of four children, including 16 years as single parent. He moved to Japan in 1997, where he lectured at universities and continued writing, including for The Japan Times.
Hillel first contacted me when I was writing a poetry column for The Japan Times in 2000. He sent me some of his work, including a volume of poetry, "Single Dad." We became friends and collaborated on an anthology and readings.