Alumnus Publishes in The Paris Review. Yes. THE Paris Review.

MATTHEW KOMATSU with HANŌKIZAWA AT THE YOSHIHAMA TSUNAMI ISHI

Nonfiction writer Matt Komatsu, Class of 2017, recently joined the roster of the some of the world's most celebrated and talented writers with the recent publication of his essay "The Buried Stone" in The Paris Review. The essay describes his visit to a tsunami ishi, or “tsunami stone,” in the Japanese village of Yoshihama. The boulder serves as warning and memorial to a series of devastating tsunamis over the centuries, most recently in 2011. Matt's guide was 89-year-old Hanōkizawa, who shared the village's experiences with tsunamis and  his own.

The risk of collective memory, unmoored—this is what I see in the barren surroundings of the Yoshihama stone. For if there is a surety, it is this: the tsunami will return.

It's a lovely little essay well worth your time. It also means that those of us who know Matt can entertain ourselves with a literary version of "Six Degrees of Separation."