Abstract. Canada lends itself to a multitude of readings, interpretations and identity (re)articulations along such connecting nodes as culture, politics and literature. By investigating the epistolary poetics of the Japanese-Canadian artist Roy Kenzie Kiyooka (1926–1994) as reflected in a few essential selections from his acclaimed posthumously published volume entitled Pacific Rim letters (2004), the present paper proposes to investigate the mechanisms by which a “racialized” (racially discriminated) and “hyphenated” (composite) Japanese-Canadian voice (i.e. a voice caught in the space between two distinct national identities, in this case Japanese & Canadian) can become prominently woven into the literary fabric of “the Canadian space.” The focus will be on identifying structuring elements such as ethnicity, cultural and political representation, and visibility, as well as on analyzing the manner in which the artist (re)claims these ethnic, cultural and political elements to articulate his literary creations and to become embedded into Canadian cultural history.
Key words: epistolary poetics; identity (re)articulations; hyphenated; racialized; Japanese Canadian; Canadian culturescape

Anton AE (2022) Towards a “personal mythology”: the epistolary poetics of Roy Kenzie Kiyooka. Creativity 5(2): 125–139. doi:10.22381/C5220225