Naoshi Koriyama was born on Kikai Island in the Amami chain of islands between mainland Japan and Okinawa in 1926.  He studied English literature at Kagoshima Normal College, the University of New Mexico, and the State University of New York at Albany. He started writing poetry in English, while he was in Albany. He seldom write poetry in Japanese. He was a professor of English at Toyo University in Tokyo from 1961 to 1997 and is the author of several volumes of poetry, including "Like Underground Water: The Poetry of Mid-Twentieth Century Japan," co-translated with Edward Lueders, (Copper Canyon Press, 1995), "Selected Poems 1954-1985,"(1989), and "Eternal Grandeur and Other Poems" (1994). A talented dancer, he enjoys demonstrating his Amami dance at a meeting or party.