Lucille Nixon

Lucille M. Nixon was a poet and school supervisor from Palo [Alto, California]. In 1957 she became the first foreigner selected to participate in Utakai Hajime, the Imperial New Year's Poetry Reading of Japan. Nixon performed a 31 syllable waka about the Hōryū-ji, a Buddhist temple she had visited on a trip two years earlier. After her reading, she won the praises of Emperor Hirohito, who encouraged her to continue writing Japanese poetry so she could become a "bridge" between Japan and the United States.

Death and legacy

Nixon died in 1963.
An elementary school in Palo Alto currently bears her name.