Born to a Chinese mother and a Japanese father in San Francisco, Gail Tsukiyama has taught at the Crowden School in Berkeley, California, and as a part-time lectures in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. She has received awards for her poetry and was one of fifty authors chosen by the Libary of Congress to participate in the first National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., in 2001.

Gail Tsukiyama is the author of Dreaming Water (2002), The Language of Threads (1999), Night of Many Dreams (1998), The Samurai's Garden (1996), and Women of the Silk (1991).