Here’s the third question that helps us understand how readers and writers connect.  Earlier we looked at the connecting power of humor and laughter, as well as a common concern by readers and writers for characters in pain.

Now we come to poison and dying, and at a time like this I wish I were a mystery writer.  Agatha Christie loved to kick off her mysteries with a good old-fashioned poisoning.  Her 80 mystery novels have sold about four billion copies in 45 languages. They say that everybody loves a good mystery, and apparently everybody also loves a good poisoning.

Read the rest of this entry »

J.D. Salinger, best known for writing a sensationally popular and critically acclaimed novel over 50 years ago, and for never having appeared on Oprah or The Tonight Show, or pretty much anywhere else outside of Cornish, New Hampshire, after he ran from his celebrity, died last week at the age of 91.

This news has been rattling around in my head in the five days since he left us (this time for good).

Read the rest of this entry »

After writing this week about killer cliches, and then about a character whose great obsession is the disturbing preposition in the phrase “in Maui,” I was going to plunge once more into the dark seas of murky language. But then the Hawaii weather turned crisp and clear, I began listening to the words of some of my favorite Christmas music, and I decided not to take the plunge.

Instead I took out “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” and surrendered to the magical words of Dylan Thomas. I don’t want to talk about this classic, I just want to experience it, again.

Read the rest of this entry »

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 [...]
Read the rest of this entry »

FORTHCOMING DECEMBER 2009 Originally serialized in the Hawaiian language newspaper Kuokoa Home Rula from January 1909 to April 1910, this new edition of Ka Mo‘olelo Hiwahiwa o Kawelo presents Ho‘oulumahiehie's text in modernized Hawaiian with notes and an introduction by Native Hawaiian scholar [...]
Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

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.”

Read the rest of this entry »

What: UHM English Department's Fall 2009 Reading and Colloquium Series When: Thursday, Oct. 29 at 3-4:30pm Where: Kuykendall 410, UH (Manoa) Todd and Linda Shimoda will read for their new book Oh!: A Mystery of \'Mono No Aware\'. Synopsis: Oh! A mystery o [...]
Read the rest of this entry »

Writers spend a lot of time on their opening paragraphs, and rightly so. Then we stand on the corner, displaying our wares under a streetlamp, waiting for a reader (or agent, or editor) to drive by. When they slow down, or stop at a red light, we boldly slink out to the curb, holding the first manuscript page of our novel up to the car window, pointing to that first seductive sentence, the alluring opening paragraph, the irresistible hook that will charm them into opening the passenger door and inviting us in. Hooker and hookee, together at last in a kind of erotic literary eHarmony dream.

But—and I apologize if you wanted me to pursue this dream further—what about the final paragraph of the novel?

Read the rest of this entry »

Murder Casts a Shadow by Victoria Kneubuhl by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl Murder Casts a Shadow is the debut novel by acclaimed local [...]
Read the rest of this entry »