Kathleen Burkinshaw is a Japanese American author & the daughter of a Hiroshima survivor residing in Charlotte, NC. She’s a wife, mom to a daughter about to graduate from college, and owns a dog who is a kitchen ninja. She has presented her mother’s experience in Hiroshima to middle and high schools for the past 9 years. The Last Cherry Blossom (Sky Pony Press,2016), is now a UNITED NATIONS Office for Disarmament Affairs EDUCATION RESOURCE for Teachers and Students. And is recently nominated for NC School Library Media Association YA book award and 2019-2020 VSBA, 2018& 2016 Scholastic WNDB Reading Club selection, and Finalist for NC Sir Walter Raleigh Fiction Award, 2018 Sakura Medal, Japan, and SCBWI Crystal Kite Award (southeast region),