Hawaii Book & Music Festival: Full Schedule

4:00pm HST

*Special Presentation - Authors - Hawai’i Literary Arts Council 2021 Awards

The Hawai’i Literary Arts Council has announced the recipients of the 2021 Elliot Cades Awards for Hawai’i Literature.

The Cades awardees are: Elmer Omar Bascos Pizo and Kawai Strong Washburn.

The Hawai’i Literary Arts Council also has announced recipients of the Loretta D. Petrie Awards for outstanding service to Hawai’i’s literary community.

The Petrie awardees are: Gail N. Harada and Craig Howes.

Moderator

Eric Paul Shaffer

Eric Paul Shaffer is author of seven poetry books, including Even Further West and A Million-Dollar Bill. Green Leaves: Selected and New Poems will appear in 2022. 600 individual poems appear in reviews in America and eleven other countries. Shaffer teaches composition, literature... Read More →

Speakers

Elmer Omar Bascos Pizo

Elmer Omar Bascos Pizo comes from a family of farmers, teachers and religious leaders in the Philippines. His poems are provocative, often sad, in depicting his journey from an abusive childhood, through the trials of an overseas Filipino worker in the Middle East to the challenges... Read More →

Gail N. Harada

Gail N. Harada was born in Honolulu and spent part of her childhood on a military base in Japan. She has a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and has long been a pillar of the Bamboo Ridge Press —a behind-the-scenes person... Read More →

Craig Howes

Craig Howes is the Director of the Center for Biographical Research, the co-editor of Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, and a Professor of English at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. The co-editor of Teaching Lifewriting Texts (MLA 2007), The Value of Hawaiʻi (2010... Read More →

Kawaii Strong Washburn

Kawai Strong Washburn was born and raised on the Hamakua coast of the Big Island of Hawai‘i. His work has appeared in Best American Nonrequired Reading, McSweeney’s, and Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, among other outlets. He was a 2015 Tin House Summer Scholar and... Read More →

Saturday October 2, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm HST
Special Presentations

Authors

5:30pm HST

Author - Voices of Hawai‘i: Life Stories that Shaped the State

Hear the people who shaped modern Hawai‘i in oral history at its best

Moderator

M. Puakea Nogelmeier

Puakea Nogelmeier is a Professor Emeritus of UH Mānoa, where he taught Hawaiian language for 35 years. After decades of studying Hawaiian language, culture, and history, he co-founded Awaiaulu with Nakila Steele in 2003, to foster a new generation of resource people and fortify the... Read More →

Speakers

Jane Marshall Goodsill

Author and historian Jane Marshall Goodsill was born and raised on O‘ahu. As a Licensed Professional Counselor, she listened to thousands of hours of personal stories. After retirement she served for ten years on her county’s historical commission. Her first book, Voices of Hawai‘i... Read More →

Saturday October 2, 2021 5:30pm - 6:30pm HST
Authors

Authors, Memoir

4:00pm HST

Author - Midnight Water City: A Novel

Chris Mckinney takes a surprising deep dive into sci-fi

“This distinctive novel brims with delightful innovations, razor-sharp social commentary and richly wrought characters, all set against a teeming underwater city.”
—Newsweek

“This gritty noir set in a sci-fi landscape is a real page-turner.”
—Buzzfeed

“Chris McKinney's cyber-noir novel, Midnight, Water City, is a riveting, cautionary tale about our earth-exploited future. His mind-blowing concepts and conceits are so spooky and brilliant one suspects he's the spawn of Asimov and Tesla. A must-read for sci-fi lovers!”
—Kiana Davenport, author of Shark Dialogues

Moderator

Tom Gammarino

Tom Gammarino is author of the novels King of the Worlds and Big in Japan and the novella Jellyfish Dreams. Recent shorter works have appeared in Entropy, The Tahoma Literary Review, Bamboo Ridge, and Hawai'i Pacific Review, among others. He has a PhD in English from the University... Read More →

Speakers

Chris McKinney

Chris McKinney was born in Honolulu and grew up in Kahaluu on the island of Oahu. He is the author of Midnight, Water City, book one of the Water City trilogy. He has written six other novels: The Tattoo, The Queen of Tears, Bolohead Row, Mililani Mauka, Boi No Good, and Yakudoshi... Read More →

Sunday October 3, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm HST
Authors

Authors, Fiction

5:30pm HST

Poetry - Author - Threshold Habitat

One of Hawai‘i’s leading poets responds to the threat of climate change

Speakers

Arielle Taitano Lowe

Arielle Taitano Lowe is a Chamoru poet and literary scholar from the island of Guam. She is currently a Ph.D. student in the English department at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa. Her poetry and creative nonfiction essays can be found in Storyboard: A Journal of Pacific Imagery... Read More →

Craig Santos Perez

Craig Santos Perez is a Chamoru from Guåhan (Guam). He is the author of five books of poetry and the co editor of five anthologies. He is a professor in the English Department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Monday October 4, 2021 5:30pm - 6:30pm HST
Authors

Authors, Poetry

4:00pm HST

Author - Biography - Empire’s Mistress, Starring Isabel Rosario Cooper

A failed love affair between a venerated war hero and a young Filipina actress caught within the violent histories of U.S. imperialism

In Empire's Mistress Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez follows the life of Filipina vaudeville and film actress Isabel Rosario Cooper, who was the mistress of General Douglas MacArthur. If mentioned at all, their relationship exists only as a salacious footnote in MacArthur's biography—a failed love affair between a venerated war hero and a young woman of Filipino and American heritage. Following Cooper from the Philippines to Washington, D.C. to Hollywood, where she died penniless, Gonzalez frames her not as a tragic heroine, but as someone caught within the violent histories of U.S. imperialism.

Moderator

Kim Compoc

Kim Compoc is an assistant professor of history at University of Hawaiʻi - West O‘ahu. Her work has been published in Amerasia, Journal of Asian American Studies, Frontiers: A Women’s Studies Journal, and Q&A: Voices from Queer Asian North America.

Speakers

Vernadette Vicuña Gonzales

Vernadette Gonzalez is Professor of American Studies and Director of the Honors Program at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. She is the author of two books, Securing Paradise: Tourism and Militarism in Hawai‘i and the Philippines (2013) and Empire's Mistress, Starring Isabel... Read More →

Friday October 8, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm HST
Authors

Authors, Nonfiction/Biography

5:30pm HST

Authors – Nonfiction - Leadership – A Conversation

Two exemplary Hawai‘i teachers discuss their approaches to leadership

Speakers

Jan Iwase

Jan Iwase spent 45 years as an educator in Hawai`i. After retiring in 2018, she wrote two books. The first, Leading with Aloha: From the Pineapple Fields to the Principal’s Office, was published in 2019. Her second book, Educating with Aloha: Reflections from the Heart on Teaching... Read More →

Rusty Komori

Rusty Komori was the Head Coach of the Punahou Boy’s Varsity Tennis Team for 22 years, winning 22 consecutive State Championships, which is the longest streak in the United States in all sports. He is the author of two best-selling books Beyond The Lines, and Beyond The Game... Read More →

Friday October 8, 2021 5:30pm - 6:30pm HST
Authors

Authors, Nonfiction/Leadership

4:00pm HST

Author – Memoir - From the Desk of the Attorney General

A Hawai‘i Attorney General interviewed by his Governor

Memoirist David Louie served as Attorney General under Gov. Neil Abercrombie.

Moderator ex-Gov Neil Abercrombie served in the Honolulu City Council, the House and Senate of the state legislature, in the US House of Representatives, and finally as Governor of Hawai‘i 2010-2014.

Moderator

Gov. Neil Abercrombie

Former Governor Neil Abercrombie served as the seventh Governor of Hawaii from 2010 to 2014. From 1975 to 1979 he served in the Hawaii House of Representatives and was subsequently elected to the Hawaii Senate. Abercrombie won a seat in the US House of Representatives in 1986, and... Read More →

Speakers

David Louie

David M. Louie is a civil trial lawyer at Kobayashi Sugita & Goda, LLP in Honolulu, Hawai‘I, and also serves as a mediator and arbitrator. He was Hawai‘i’s Attorney General from 2011- 2014. He has served as president, vice president and director of the Hawai‘i State Bar Association... Read More →

Saturday October 9, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm HST
Authors

Authors, Memoir

5:30pm HST

*Special Presentation - Author – Memoir - Heart of Fire: An Immigrant Daughter’s Story

An immigrant daughter forges a major political career in a male-dominated world

“[A] sparkling, revelatory memoir.” —Oprah Daily

“Absolutely incredible.” —Mika Brzezinksi, co-host, Morning Joe

“An epic, heart-tugging journey.” —Glamour

“If a life can be called implausible, Mazie Hirono has lived it. In Heart of Fire, she tells an astonishingly compelling story. As a child born in postwar Japan, she crossed an ocean with her brother and mother, grew up in poverty in paradisiacal Hawaii, and emerged as a fiery voice and agent of change in the male-dominated, rough-and-tumble worlds of American politics. Powerful, poignant, and beautifully told, Heart of Fire is her inspiring, singular story.” —George Takei, New York Times bestselling author of They Called Us Enemy

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Moderator

Denby Fawcett

Denby Fawcett is a columnist for Honolulu Civil Beat. She formerly worked at KITV-4-News, the ABC News affiliate in Hawaii. She reported for KITV for 23 years, most recently as chief political editor. Denby has been a news reporter since she was 15 years old, when she wrote a... Read More →

Speakers

US Sen. Mazie Hirono

Senator Mazie K. Hirono is a graduate of the University of Hawai‘i, Manoa and the Georgetown University Law Center. She has served in the Hawai‘i House of Representatives (1981-1994), as Hawai‘i's lieutenant governor (1994-2002), and in the U.S. House of Representatives (2006-2013... Read More →

Saturday October 9, 2021 5:30pm - 6:30pm HST
Special Presentations

Authors, Memoir

2:30pm HST

Theatre for Young Audiences -Interstellar Cinderella: A Musical

Speakers

Taylor Bogan

Taylor Bogan is a performer, director, educator and third year MFA candidate in Theater for Young Audiences and Acting at The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. She is most interested in children’s theater that challenges preconceived gender norms, and pieces that instill confidence... Read More →

Jill Jackson

Jill Jackson is currently pursuing her MFA in Theatre for Young Audiences at UHM and plays one head of the two-headed Fairy GodBot in Interstellar Cinderella. This native Texan enjoys being a storyteller in many art forms and is delighted to share this fun twist on a classic sto... Read More →

Karese Kaw-uh

Karese Kaw-uh (Hulla) is pursuing her MFA in Theater for Young Audiences at UH Mānoa and is thrilled to be performing again. She has worked both on stage and behind the scenes with the Virginia Stage Company and is excited to be involved with the local community here in Hawaiʻi... Read More →

Sunday October 10, 2021 2:30pm - 3:30pm HST
Authors & Performances

Authors

4:00pm HST

*Special Presentation - Author: Fiction – The Island of Sea Women

Two women divers and lifetime friends on an island between two warring empires

“A mesmerizing new historical novel” (O, The Oprah Magazine)

"Lisa See is a New York Times bestselling author, a thorough researcher and a wonderful storyteller. In this novel, she seamlessly weaves history, tradition and culture into a heartfelt story about love and forgiveness. It’s an unforgettable read."
—Toronto Star

"I was spellbound the moment I entered the vivid and little-known world of the diving women of Jeju. Set amid sweeping historical events, The Island of Sea Women is the extraordinary story of Young-sook and Mi-ja, of women’s daring, heartbreak, strength, and forgiveness. No one writes about female friendship, the dark and the light of it, with more insight and depth than Lisa See."
—Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees and The Invention of Wings

"I loved The Island of Sea Women from the very first page. Lisa See has created an enthralling, compelling portrait of a unique culture and a turbulent time in history, but what's really remarkable about this novel is the characters—two women whose lifelong friendship is tested during impossibly difficult times. Compelling, heart-wrenching, and beautifully written, The Island of Sea Women will plunge you into a world and a story you've never read before and remind you how powerful women can and must be to survive."
—Kristin Hannah, author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone

Moderator

Connie Hale

Connie Hale is a San Francisco–based journalist. Her award-winning features on hula, slack-key guitar, the sovereignty movement, the Hawaiian language, Big Island cowboys, and Spam musubi have appeared in the Atlantic, National Geographic Adventure, Afar, Smithsonian, the Los... Read More →

Speakers

Lisa See

Lisa See is the New York Times bestselling author of The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, Shanghai Girls, China Dolls, and Dreams of Joy, which debuted at #1. She is also the author of On Gold Mountain, which tells the story of her Chinese... Read More →

Sunday October 10, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm HST
Authors

Authors, Fiction

5:30pm HST

Authors - Fiction - Radar Girls: A Novel of World War II & Ring of Fire

The little-known women of Hawaii recruited after Pearl Harbor to staff the islands' radar stations

An extraordinary story inspired by the real Women’s Air Raid Defense, where an unlikely recruit and her sisters-in-arms forge their place in WWII history.

“A wow of a book…[that is] a captivating story of friendship, heartbreak and true love. Highly recommend!” —Karen Robards, New York Times bestselling author of The Black Swan of Paris

Amazon Editors’ Pick of the Month

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Patrick Featherstone - hero of Sea of Fire - frantically tries to unravel a plot by North Korean terrorists to destroy the Tokyo Olympics.

Rings of Fire is another winner, a very current take on what’s going on in Japan. It’s a great follow up to Sea of Fire. Shepherd writes another fast paced, fast action, fast moving, hard to put down novel about Patrick Featherstone. If you loved Sea of Fire like I did, you’ll love Rings of Fire as well.

Moderator

Tyler McMahon

Tyler McMahon is the author of the novels How the Mistakes Were Made, Kilometer 99, Dream of Another America, and One Potato. Tyler is a Professor of English at Hawai`i Pacific University and the editor of the Hawai`i Pacific Review.

Speakers

Sara Ackerman

Sara Ackerman is a Hawai'i born author of WWII historical fiction. Her books have been labeled “unforgettable” by Apple Books, “empowering & deliciously visceral” by Book Riot, and New York Times bestselling authors Kate Quinn and Madeline Martin have praised Sara’s novels... Read More →

Gregory Shepherd

Gregory Shepherd spent his early years in New Jersey, London, England, New York City's Lower East Side, and Honolulu. He lived in Japan for four years studying Zen Buddhism at a temple in Kamakura. Sea of Fire is the culmination of travel to South Korea, as well as voluminous research... Read More →

Sunday October 10, 2021 5:30pm - 6:30pm HST
Authors

Authors, Fiction, Thrillers

1:00pm HST

Authors - Peril

Limited Capacity full

The #1 New York Times Best Seller

Moderator

Mindy Marqués

Mindy Marqués joined Simon & Schuster in 2020 as Vice President and Executive Editor after a 30-year career as a journalist. Prior to book publishing, Marqués was publisher and executive editor of the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald and Florida Regional Editor for McClatchy. During... Read More →

Speakers

Bob Woodward

Bob Woodward is an associate editor at The Washington Post and the author of 20 national bestselling books, including 14 #1 New York Times bestsellers.

Robert Costa

Robert Costa is a national political reporter at The Washington Post. He previously served as moderator and managing editor of Washington Week on PBS.

Thursday October 14, 2021 1:00pm - 2:00pm HST
Authors

Authors

12:00pm HST

*Special Presentation: Author - The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet (In partnership with the UH Mānoa Better Tomorrow Speaker Series)

The deliberate assault on climate science, and how it can be reversed

Moderator

Makena Coffman

Makena Coffman is the Director for the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Institute for Sustainability and Resilience. She is a Professor of Urban and Regional Planning and Research Fellow with the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization, and Chair of the City & County... Read More →

Speakers

Michael E. Mann

Michael E. Mann is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI). He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center (ESSC). Dr. Mann received his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Applied Math from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.S. degree in Physics from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Geology & Geophysics from Yale University. His research involves the use of theoretical models... Read More →

Friday October 15, 2021 12:00pm - 1:00pm HST
UH Mānoa BetterTomorrow Speaker Series

Authors, Nonfiction

5:30pm HST

Authors - My Heart Smiles: Life Stories from an Audacious Academic

A science nerd with a wild sense of humor

Moderator

Jane Marshall Goodsill

Speakers

Virginia Hinshaw

Dr. Virginia S. Hinshaw, Chancellor Emeritus of UH Mānoa, is a science nerd with a wild sense of humor and a love of adventure. Whether conducting research, teaching students, leading a university or throwing a javelin, her laugh is her constant companion. Her passion for research... Read More →

Friday October 15, 2021 5:30pm - 6:30pm HST
Authors

Authors, Memoir

5:30pm HST

Author - A Woman in the House

We need a woman in the House, she said, and won

"A Woman in the House" is the story of a true leader, former member of Congress Pat Saiki, a woman whose leadership has made a difference in the lives of so many---inspiring small business women and men, helping families and educating children. It is a book that gives us the secret to true and lasting success and one that should be provided to every young person seeking to find their way in life. Among the many important lessons in the book: Pat Saiki built her career on a foundation of service, and her story provides important insights about how to persevere in the face of great obstacles.
--Patricia Harrison, president and CEO, Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Moderator

Denby Fawcett

Speakers

Pat Saiki

Pat Saiki, born and raised in Hilo on the island of Hawai‘i, one of three daughters of the second-generation Japanese Americans Kazuo and Shizue Fukuda. An educator by training, she spent fourteen years in classrooms in Hawai‘i and on the US mainland. It was her experience in... Read More →

Saturday October 16, 2021 5:30pm - 6:30pm HST
Authors

Authors, Memoir

4:00pm HST

Author - Inviting Interruptions: Wonder Tales of the 21st Century

Challenging the popular perception of fairy tales

Moderator

Cristina Bacchilega

Cristina Bacchilega is Professor Emerita of English at the University of Hawai‘i-Mānoa. Her books include Legendary Hawai‘i and the Politics of Place: Tradition, Translation, and Tourism; Fairy Tales Transformed? 21st-Century Adaptations and the Politics of Wonder; and The... Read More →

Jennifer Orme

Jennifer Orme is an independent scholar, editor, and writer. She lives in Toronto and teaches online for University of Winnipeg. Jennifer has published on fairy tales in academic journals and books. She’s also written feature magazine articles, multi-sensory fiction, and creative... Read More →

Speakers

Joellyn Rock

Joellyn Rock, Associate Professor of Art & Design at University of Minnesota Duluth, seeks new ways to tell old tales. Using digital tools and experimental multimedia, she loves to morph fairy tales for new audiences. Rock recently illustrated Jack Zipes’ adaptation of Tistou, the... Read More →

Veronica Schanoes

Veronica Schanoes is an American author of fantasy stories and an associate professor in the department of English at Queens College, CUNY. Her novella “Burning Girls” was nominated for the Nebula Award and the World Fantasy Award and won the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novella... Read More →

Nisi Shawl

Nisi Shawl edited New Suns: Speculative Fiction by People of Color, winner of the World Fantasy and Ignyte awards. Shawl wrote the 2016 Nebula finalist Everfair and the 2008 Tiptree/Otherwise winning collection Filter House. In 2005 they co-wrote Writing the Other: A Practical Approach... Read More →

Sunday October 17, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm HST
Authors

Authors, Non-Fiction Fantasy

5:30pm HST

*Special Presentation: Author - Buddhism & Race, and Other Topics (In partnership with the UH Mānoa Better Tomorrow Speaker Series & Sponsored by BDK Hawai'i)

The profound connection between Buddhism and creativity

Moderator

George Tanabe

George Tanabe, Moderator, is Emeritus professor of religion and past Chair of the Religion Department at UH Manoa. Dr. Tanabe is President of BDK Hawai'i and BDK America (Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai, the Society for the Promotion of Buddhism). It's mission is to translate all of the Buddhist... Read More →

Speakers

Charles Johnson

Dr. Charles Johnson, University of Washington (Seattle) professor emeritus and the author of 25 books, is a novelist, philosopher, essayist, literary scholar, short-story writer, cartoonist and illustrator, an author of children’s literature, and a screen-and-teleplay writer. A... Read More →

Sunday October 17, 2021 5:30pm - 6:30pm HST
UH Mānoa BetterTomorrow Speaker Series

Authors

4:00pm HST

Author - Nonfiction - Inclusion: How Hawai'i Protected Japanese Americans from Mass Internment, Transformed Itself, and Changed America

Unraveling the deep history of the U.S. “sabotage psychosis”

Moderator

George Tanabe

Speakers

Tom Coffman

Tom Coffman’s work in book and documentary film focuses on the social and political development of Hawai‘i. He was chief political reporter of the Honolulu Star Bulletin (1968-73) and since then has been an independent writer and producer. He is the recipient of the State of Hawaiʻi’s... Read More →

Friday October 22, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm HST
Authors

Authors, Nonfiction/History

5:30pm HST

Honolulu Theatre for Youth-Stories of Oceania

World Premiere of a digital theatre production for young audiences

Moderator

Eric Johnson

Eric Johnson is the Artistic Director of Honolulu Theatre for Youth where he is honored to work alongside a team of professional theatre artists and educators creating original work for Hawaii’s students, teachers and families. His work has been supported by the National Endowment... Read More →

Speakers

Moses Goods

Moses Goods is one of Hawaiʻi’s most prominent theatre artists and an Artistic Associate at Honolulu Theatre for Youth. Originally from the island of Maui and now based in Honolulu, he has traveled nationally and internationally performing his original work to a wide range of... Read More →

Friday October 22, 2021 5:30pm - 6:30pm HST
Authors & Performances

Authors

3:30pm HST

*Special Presentation: Poetry - Living Nations, Living Words: A conversation with Joy Harjo and Pacific Poets (Sponsored by Halekulani)

The Poet Laureate’s celebration of indigenous poetry, joined by five Hawai‘i poets
In partnership with the UH Mānoa Better Tomorrow Speaker Series.

Moderator

Craig Santos Perez

Speakers

Joy Harjo, US Poet Laureate

Joy Harjo is the 23d Poet Laureate of the United States, and a world renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She is the author of plays, children’s books, two memoirs, and nine books of poetry—among them the anthologies When the Light of the World Was Subdued... Read More →

Brandy Nālani McDougall

Brandy Nālani McDougall is a Kanaka ʻŌiwi poet raised on Maui. She is the author of The Salt-Wind Ka Makani Paʻakai and Finding Meaning: Kaona and Contemporary Hawaiian Literature. She is an associate professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

No'u Revilla

Noʻu Revilla is a queer ʻŌiwi poet and educator. She is an assistant professor of creative writing at UH-Mānoa and is proud to have taught poetry at Puʻuhuluhulu University in the summer 2019. Her first book of poetry Ask the Brindled is forthcoming from Milkweed Editions in... Read More →

Lehua M. Taitano

Lehua M. Taitano, familian Kabesa yan Kuetu, is a queer Chamoru writer and interdisciplinary artist from Yigu, Guåhan (Guam) and co-founder of Art 25: Art in the Twenty-fifth Century. She is the author of Inside Me an Island and A Bell Made of Stones.

Mahealani Wendt

Mahealani Wendt is the author of the poetry book Uluhaimālama (2007) and the co-editor of Ho`olaule`a: Celebrating 10 Years of Pacific Writing. She has been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies.

Saturday October 23, 2021 3:30pm - 4:30pm HST
Authors

Authors

2:30pm HST

Author – Remembering Our Grandfathers’ Exile: US Imprisonment of Hawai‘i’s Japanese in World War II

The experience of Hawai‘i’s exiled immigrant Japanese in WW II

Moderator

Franklin Odo

Franklin Odo is an author, activist, and historian. He was involved in the movement that created Asian American Studies in the late 1960s. Odo has published widely and taught at numerous colleges and universities. He was founding director of the Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American... Read More →

Speakers

Gail Y. Okawa

Gail Y. Okawa, professor emerita, English, Youngstown State University, Ohio; visiting scholar, Center for Biographical Research, University of Hawai‘i Mānoa. Since 2002 when a visiting scholar at the Smithsonian Institution, she has explored the experiences of Japanese immigrants... Read More →

Sunday October 24, 2021 2:30pm - 3:30pm HST
Authors

Authors, Memoir

4:00pm HST

Author - Bamboo Ridge #120: Red Dirt - A Novel

A noir take on 1950’s Red Scare in Hawai‘i

Moderator

Roger Jellinek

Roger Jellinek has been Executive Director of HBMF since 2006. He’s been involved in book publishing for over 50 years in New York and Hawai‘i — as a New York Times Book Review editor, as a trade book editor, science newsletter publisher, literary agent, and map publisher. He... Read More →

Speakers

Scott Kikkawa

Scott Kikkawa is a fourth generation Japanese American and native of Hawaii. He is a federal law enforcement officer who writes detective noir fiction set in postwar Honolulu. His debut novel, Kona Winds, was released by Bamboo Ridge Press in November 2019. His follow up novel, Red... Read More →

Sunday October 24, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm HST
Authors

Authors, Fiction

5:30pm HST

Author - Fiction - Angel & Hannah: A Novel in Verse

A reimagining of Romeo and Juliet set in 1990s New York City

Moderator

Lee A. Tonouchi

Lee A. Tonouchi's book Okinawan Princess: Da Legend of Hajichi Tattoos won one Skipping Stones Honor Award. His Significant Moments in da Life of Oriental Faddah and Son won da Association for Asian American Studies Book Award. An'den his play Three Year Swim Club wuz one Los... Read More →

Speakers

Ishle Yi Park

Ishle Yi Park is an award~winning writer who is the first woman to become Poet Laureate of Queens, New York. She lives in Hawai'i with her two daughters and loves to garden, swim, dance hula, read and write. For more information, please go to www.ishleyipark.com... Read More →

Sunday October 24, 2021 5:30pm - 6:30pm HST
Authors

Authors, Fiction

4:00pm HST

Authors - Bamboo Ridge #119 - Kipuka: Finding Refuge in Times of Change

Five young Hawai‘i poets represent Hawai‘i’s oldest literary journal

Moderator

Donald Carreira Ching

Donald Carreira Ching (he/him/his) was born and raised in Kahaluʻu, on the island of Oʻahu. His poetry and fiction have appeared in publications such as Rio Grande Review, NonBinary Review, and Every Day Fiction. In 2015, his debut novel, Between Sky and Sea: a Family's Struggle... Read More →

Speakers

Joanna Gordon

Joanna Gordon is a writer from the gentrified swamplands of East Honolulu. She is a first-year PhD candidate studying Storytelling and Rhetoric at Indiana University and has degrees from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Western Washington University. Her poems and prose have... Read More →

Navid Najafi aka Illnomadic

Navid Najafi aka Illnomadic is a founding member of the local conscious rap collective, the Super Groupers, and a two-time Nā Hōkū Hanohano Hip Hop Album of the Year award winner. Born in Tehran Iran, Najafi found home when he migrated to Hawai‘i after high school to attend... Read More →

Ngaio Simmons

Ngaio Simmons (she/her, he/him) is a queer writer and performer with a degree in English from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Writing from the diaspora as a Māori poet born and raised away from Aotearoa, New Zealand, her work digs into such themes as diaspora, identity conflict... Read More →

Doug Upp

Decades after quitting bands (Imminent Riot, Patty Judy & The Dirt), canceling his talk show (Shaka Talk), and halting the presses on several zines (Shaka Zine, HoStage, Contraflow), Doug Upp is lucky & grateful his words were recently seen in local magazines Tropic, and The Manifold... Read More →

Friday October 29, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm HST
Authors

Authors

5:30pm HST

Author -The Plague Doctors: How Hawaii Battled the Pandemic

It took a guerrilla operation by doctors via social media to force a vital change in the state’s pandemic policy

Moderator

Robert Perkinson

Robert Perkinson is an associate professor of American Studies at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa and coordinator of the Better Tomorrow Speaker Series. He is a specialist in race relations, criminal justice, and social movements.

Speakers

Jonathan Dworkin

Jonathan Dworkin is a graduate of the humanities and medicine program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. As a medical student he travelled to the Kurdish region in Northern Iraq and worked with the Kurdish government to document the sequelae of the chemical weapons attacks... Read More →

Friday October 29, 2021 5:30pm - 6:30pm HST
Authors

Authors, Nonfiction

5:30pm HST

Author - The Mailbox Conspiracy: The Inside Story of the Greatest Corruption Case in Hawai'i History

A federal defense attorney turns prosecutor and cracks open a case of corruption that’s still ongoing

Moderator

Nick Grube

Prior to becoming Civil Beat’s Washington D.C. Correspondent, Nick Grube was an investigative reporter focusing on criminal justice and legal affairs, a position that led him to the Kealohas. A police series helped spur the creation of the Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest... Read More →

Speakers

Alexander Silvert

Alexander Silvert, author of The Mailbox Conspiracy,” was raised in New York City and Vermont. After graduating from UCLA and driving a cab in New York, he obtained his JD from Boston College Law School. He was a state and federal public defender in Philadelphia before moving... Read More →

Saturday October 30, 2021 5:30pm - 6:30pm HST
Authors

Authors, Nonfiction

12:00pm HST

Author - Paddling the Outrigger: Inspiration and Insights on the Journey of a Lifetime

Paddling the Outrigger is at once a memoir and business tutorial, encompassing stories of Waikiki past, the Hawai‘i “Doc” Kelley experienced as a child, the history of Outrigger Hotels and the many people who built the state’s tourism industry, and a firsthand account of the development of Hawai‘i as a global top-tier tourism destination.

Pre-publication Buy the Book Offer: $24.95+hst* free shipping for registered event attendees. *You will receive a link and advance purchase code for your copy of “Paddling the Outrigger” with your registration link for the virtual event.

Moderator

Allison Schaefers

Allison Schaefers is the Waikiki Bureau Chief for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Schaefers has covered Hawaii tourism for nearly two decades. The veteran journalist is an honors graduate of the Henry W. Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia. She has won numerous state... Read More →

Speakers

John DeFries

John De Fries is president and CEO of the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority (HTA), the State of Hawai‘i agency responsible for strategically managing its support of the tourism industry. Born in Waikīkī, De Fries was raised by family elders steeped in Hawaiian culture. He has more... Read More →

Ray L' Heureux

Ray L’Heureux was a career Marine helicopter pilot, achieving the rank of colonel and commanding two different aviation squadrons. He served as the personal helicopter pilot for President George W Bush and President Barack Obama, and is the author of “Inside Marine One.” He... Read More →

Charles Roy “Chuck” Kelley

Charles Roy “Chuck” Kelley, M.D., MPH, MBA, is chairman of the board at Seaside Ohana Investments, Inc., a private family office and new legacy company formed after the 2016 sale of the family’s long-held hotel operating company Outrigger Enterprises Group. Prior to joining... Read More →

Richard Kelley

Born in Waikīkī in 1933, the eldest child of Hawai‘i’s pioneering hoteliers Roy and Estelle Kelley, Dr. Richard Kelley worked at his parents’ first hotel. Following his first career as a pathologist at Queen’s Hospital and professor at the University of Hawai‘i School... Read More →

Kitty Yannone

Kitty Yannone is a well-known and respected entrepreneur and community leader with over 30 years of experience in public relations, issues management, and crisis communications. She was a founding board member and the first executive director of Hawaiʻi’s Ronald McDonald House... Read More →

Monday November 1, 2021 12:00pm - 1:00pm HST
Authors & Performances

Authors

5:00pm HST

Author - Memoir: Road to Freedom, A Journey from Occupied Tibet with Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Guided by H.H. the Dalai Lama, Marya Schwabe and her husband Michael, and a monk from Nechung Monastery in India, journeyed to Tibet in search of Nechung Rinpoche’s reincarnation. Marya tells story of their search, discovery, and escape with their teacher’s reincarnation.

Moderator

Tom Peek

Volcano writer Tom Peek is author of the award-winning novel Daughters of Fire. An acclaimed writing teacher, his workshops have inspired hundreds of islanders to write their own novels, memoirs, poems, and family histories. A Hawaiʻi Island resident for three decades, he lives near... Read More →

Speakers

Marya Waifoon Schwabe

Marya Schwabe is the Administrative Director at Wood Valley Temple (Nechung Dorje Drayang Ling) on Hawai’i Island. Marya and her husband Michael reside at the temple, which was established in 1974 by Nechung Rinpoche, an eminent Tibetan lama. They studied, lived, and worked with... Read More →

Tuesday November 2, 2021 5:00pm - 6:00pm HST
Authors & Performances

Authors

5:00pm HST

Cook Real Hawaii

Hilo-born Chef Sheldon Simeon won Fan Favorite twice in Bravo’s hit show, Top Chef. Sheldon went on to launch two restaurants featuring local fare, and was a James Beard Award semi-finalist in 2019 for “Best New Restaurant.” This past spring he published his best-selling cookbook, Cook Real Hawai‘i.

Moderator

Amanda Corby

Amanda Corby Noguchi is the co-founder of communications firm Under My Umbrella and event company Pili Group, along with her husband Chef Mark Noguchi. Dedicated to preserving and uplifting culture and communities in Hawaiʻi, they also founded Chef Hui, a nonprofit that connects... Read More →

Speakers

Chef Sheldon Simeon

Sheldon was born in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii, and attended Maui Culinary Academy. He worked in various restaurants on Maui before competing in seasons 10 and 14 of Bravo’s hit cooking show, “Top Chef,” winning Fan Favorite both times. In 2016, Sheldon opened his first... Read More →

Wednesday November 3, 2021 5:00pm - 6:00pm HST
Authors & Performances

Authors

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