TALKING HAWAI`I’S STORY: ORAL HISTORIES OF AN ISLAND PEOPLE is a must read book for its wealth of talk-story reminisces by local folks. Great as a Xmas gift. It’s a given that Queen Lili`uokalani looms large in Hawaii’s history. But in The Rascal of Waikiki by Lemon “Rusty” Holt we learn o [...]
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Bill Teter, ed. From the powerful opening words of the Kumulipo to the propulsive rhymes of contemporary slam poetry, Hāpai nā Leo celebrates a diverse range of voices that explore, carry, and regenerate Hawaiian culture. Editor Bill Teter created Hāpai nā Leo as a literary companion to Malcolm [...]
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Islands Linked by Ocean (Bamboo Ridge Press, 2009) is a showcase for the short story magic of Lisa Linn Kanae. Lisa is also the author of Sista Tongue (Tinfish, 2001), about which Susan Schultz wrote, “It combines the history of pidgin English in Hawaii with memoir with story telling.”

Islands Linked by Ocean is all about story telling, and Lisa tells a great story. I asked Lisa to share some of her thoughts about this new collection.

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In the Company of Strangers, Michelle Cruz Skinner’s new collection of short stories from Bamboo Ridge Press, is set to launch on Tuesday, November 17 (6:30 p.m. reception and book signing; 7:00 p.m. book launch and reading by Michelle; Luke Lecture Hall, Wo International Center, Punahou School; free and open to the public).

R. Zamora Linmark, author of Prime Time Apparitions and The Evolution of a Sigh, describes the book this way:

“Sixteen deceptively simple stories comprise Michelle Cruz Skinner’s much-anticipated follow-up to Balikbayan and Mango Seasons, many of them about Filipinos tongue-tied and alienated in the motherland, or scattered across the map of heartaches and homesickness in the company of strangers called countrymen, family, lovers. A book of quiet gems definitely worth the wait.”

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From the author of Sista Tongue come stories written with humor and compassion that give voice to characters who find themselves at crossroad moments where past informs present, young teach old, and love can mean holding on or letting go. In “The Steersman,” a novice paddler shares her tempestu [...]
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This collection of short stories chronicles the life of a Japanese American born and raised on the edge of Harlem after his family moved to New York following internment during World War II. Set largely in the neighborhood near Columbia University, it provides a unique perspective of a multicultura [...]
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An Offering of Rice is written with a careful narrative restraint that results in a striking honesty, short stories and poems that are rich in visual clarity and deeply moving in their treatment of the subjects of bi-cultural life, family, illness, and individual identity. As a hybrid of fiction a [...]
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What happens when a slick city magazine and a literary journal join forces? This book, published by Hawai'i's foremost literary journal Bamboo Ridge, features stories from the HONOLULU Magazine Fiction Contest. For the last 16 years, HONOLULU Magazine has sponsored a yearly contest for short stori [...]
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Writing entirely in hip-hop speak or what people in Hawai‘i refer to as Pidgin, Lee A. Tonouchi takes the language largely associated with Hawai‘i's underprivileged youth and attempts to legitimize it in literature. His high-performance readings of his humorous fiction pieces have won Tonouchi [...]
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Gary Pak’s first short story collection creates a world both familiar and strange. The voice of Pak’s fictional community, Kanewai, is immediately resonant to contemporary Hawai‘i readers. Yet, his stories recall worlds rich in legend, mythology and, at times, the fantastic. They are stories [...]
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