Arai Takako is the author of previous poetry collections, including Tamashii dansu [Soul Dance] which won the 2008 Oguma Hideo Prize. Since 1998, she has been an editor for the poetry journal Mi’Te; she has also edited a volume of poems about, and is producing a film connected to, the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan. Arai teaches Japanese and poetry at Saitama University. She is currently participating in the 2019 University of Iowa International Writing Program.