Growing Up Local

Winner of the Hawaiʻi Book Publishers Association Ka Palapala Poʻokela Award for Excellence in Literature and the Artists Embassy International Literary / Cultural Award. This anthology includes work by established writers, emerging writers, and student writers on the experiences of growing up in the islands. Appropriate for secondary to adult audiences, the volume includes commentary by the authors and work by prize-winning student artists. Ranging from a first-grader's poem about the closing of Waialua Sugar to a poem on the construction of H-3, the work of 52 authors documents what makes growing up in Hawaiʻi special. A humorous, poignant, thoughtful, touching, and thoroughly enjoyable introduction to Local literature. Included in the issue is new work by Arlene Biala, bradajo (Jozuf Hadley), Eric Chock, Lisa Linn Kanae, Nora Okja Keller, Darrell H.Y. Lum, Makia Malo, Susan Nunes, Carrie Takahata, Lee A. Tonouchi, and Elizabeth Wight. From HONOLULU Magazine's 50 Essential Hawai‘i Books You Should Read in Your Lifetime: "A compilation of stories and poems belonging to the genre known as “What school you went?” this banquet of a book evokes cultural epiphanies from everyday rituals (“How to Cook Rice” by Kathleen Tyau), a mother’s folk remedy (“Tongue” by Juliet S. Kono), the self-inflicted wounds of girls who’ve assimilated the pecking order of body types and skin tones (“Carnival Queen” by Mavis Hara) and much more."