pacific writers

Join us for the 13^th annual Oahu Celebrate Reading and Writing Festival will be held at the University of Hawaii Art Auditorium on April 17, 2010 with novelists, poets, short story writers and story tellers. It is attended by over 900 high school students and teachers.

Featured writers including Kealoha, Neal Shusterman, Brandy McDougall, Mahealani Perez-Wendt,Terry Trueman, Nyla Fujii-Babb, Joe Tsujimoto, Rodney Morales, Lisa Linn Kanae, Linda Nagata, Patricia Wood, Kate Elliott and David Stannard.Other Celebrate Reading Festivals will also be held on Hawaii and Maui. All these Festivals are free and open to the public.

Co-sponsored by Hawaii Writing Project, the Pacific Writers’ Connection, VSA-Hawaii, Harry and Jeannette Weinberg Foundation, Sidney Stern Memorial Trust, Associated Students of the University of Hawaii, UH Department of English, Hawaii Council for the Humanities, New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel, and Hawaii Literary Arts Council, Acknowledgments to Pizza Hut and Starbucks.

PWC’s 7th annual creative writers’ Retreat, “Writing from Abundance” with guest writer Dr. Kim Stafford, was held on January 29-30 at Wilikoki, on beautiful Hanalei Bay, Kaua’i. Fourteen Kaua’i writers improved their skills with Kim’s unique writing prompts, poetry and song, and shared their stories.

Dr. Stafford is the founding director of the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. He is the author of a dozen books of poetry and prose, including The Muses Among Us: Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer’s Craft. He has received creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Governor’s Arts Award for his contributions to Oregon’s literary culture. PWC has been privileged on several occasions to have him previously convene writing circles in Hawai’i, and talk story with the voices of this bountiful place. Kim previously participated in other PWC writing programs - Language of the Land, in 2001 and 2005.

Mahalo to Kim, Carol Wilcox, Susan O’Connor, Hob Osterlund and all the Kaua’i writers for yet another successful retreat.

PWC’s 2^nd annual Oahu Creative Writers’ workshop, “Writing from Abundance” with guest writer Dr. Kim Stafford, was held on January 27 at the Watermark Building in Waikiki. The three hour workshop gave participants an opportunity to start new stories and share experiences. It was followed by readings by Kim and participants and a reception.

Mahalo to our workshop partners, Manoa Journal: A Pacific Journal of International Writing, The Manoa Foundation, and Native Books. Mahalo also to Kelli and Skip Schmidt for hosting our creative writing workshop.

“My Hawai’i” Story Project Celebration and Fundraiser, December 12, 2009

This event, co-sponsored by the Pacific Writers’ Connection, the Hawaii Conservation Alliance Foundation, and ING Direct, provided a great opportunity to celebrate the students' accomplishments and raise funds to support the 2010 "My Hawai‘i” Story Project. Held at ING DIRECT CAFÉ in Waikiki, the Conservation Fair featured exhibits from Hawai‘i Conservation Alliance member organizations, art by Susan Scott, and “green” vendors, with educational activities and games. Participants learned about Hawaiian native species and ecosystems, and how they can play a part in protecting Hawai‘i’s natural and cultural heritage. The fair was followed by the My Hawai‘i Celebration and Reception featuring readings by "My Hawai‘i" student writers, a Silent Auction, raffle prizes, live music by Kupa‘āina, and a reception.

Joe Tsujimoto, Writer & Educator
Author of Teaching Poetry Writing to Adolescents, Lighting Fires: How the Passionate Teacher Engages Adolescent Writers, and Morningside Heights: New York Stories

Kealoha, Hawai‘i's Slam Master
Founder of HawaiiSlam, Youth Speaks Hawai‘i, and First Thursdays slam poetry competition, and performer in the Artists in the Schools program

Mahalo to our event partners and PWC volunteers: Kelli Schmidt, Deborah Kaercher and Angela Franco for all their kokua with our fundraiser and creative writing programs. Mahalo also to our Silent Auction Sponsors:

April Ishigami, Creative Patchworks; Arkadi Kuhlmann, CEO, ING Direct; Artists Knoll & Cella; Barbara Pope Book Design; Bishop Museum; Bryan Harry; Conservation Council for Hawaii; Crenatus Inc.; DLNR Division of Forestry & Wildlife; Dr. Veronica Ford, Kailua Naturopathic Medicine; Eden-Lee Murray; Frank Stewart; Gyotaku by Brandon Tengan; Hawaii Nature Center; Hawaii Volcano's National Park; Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa; ING Direct; Janice Crowl, Bishop Museum Press; Jeannette Northern; Jocelyn Fujii, Hula Moon Press; John Johnson, One Breath Photography; John McCaskill; Kokua Market; Kualoa Ranch Hawaii, Inc.; Menehune Water Company, Inc.; Native Books; NOAA Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument; Oahu Nature Tours; Ohana Komputer; Randall Kennedy; Robert Masuda; Ronald Walker; Royal Hawaiian Band Music Society; Sam and Mary Cooke, Manoa Heritage Center; Sea Life Park; Sierra Club Hawaii; Special Events Equipment, Inc.; Star of Honolulu Cruises and Events; Starwood Hotels & Resorts; Tihati Productions, Ltd.; Trish Iokepa; Tropical Paper Garden; U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii; Waikiki Aquarium; Yoga Hawaii.

For the third year, the Pacific Writers’ Connection, in partnership with the Hawaii Conservation Alliance, is co-sponsoring an environmental writing contest for young people. With nearly 400 submissions now in, 25 of the best literary works will be complied in an Anthology. The Anthology will be launched at the HCA Conference in July with an expected audience of over 800 participants. It is inspiring to see young authors writing creatively about their personal commitment to our marine and terrestrial environment.

PWC Advisory Committee member, Lorna Hershinow, has once again successfully organized reading festival for April 24, 2009 with novelists, poets, short story writers and story tellers. Last year it was attended by over 900 high school students and teachers. The Kaua'i Literature Festival Celebrate Reading is free and open to the public. The event will be held at the Kaua'i Community College Performing Arts Center and begins at 8:30, ending at 1:30 p.m.

May 2008 "A Pacific Book Affair" PWC is having a silent auction of books about Hawai'i and the Pacific Islands. Some out of print titles will be featured. Please join our PWC Ohana for this writing community celebration and fundraiser for our Writers in the Schools Program. Wednesday May 14 from 6:00 to 8:00pm at Bishop Museum, Hawaiian Atrium Courtyard. Cost $20, drinks and Hawaiian food. Mahalo to our event partners Bess Press, Bishop Museum, Native Books and Manoa Journal.

January 2008 Hanalei Writer’s Retreat “Grace Under Duress” January 11-13, with guest Brian Doyle editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland, in Oregon and author of eight books of essays, nonfiction, and "poems," most recently Epiphanies & Elegies. The retreat will take place at Wilikoki, Carol Wilcox’s beautiful home on Hanalei Bay, Kaua'i. This workshop for 14 participants is now full.

Please go to the SHARE section to read the PWC newsletters for 2007 and 2006.

Nationwide, we are experiencing a decline in reading and writing skills among students of all ages. This decline in students’ reading and writing skills has been well documented, and the Hawai’i experience follows this national trend. Pacific Writers’ Connection’s (PWC) writers in the schools program (WISP) will focus on this problem, one child at a time. PWC believes that every individual has unique stories and that our resident writers will help children find creative ways to tell those stories. We are embarking on this new project to encourage the writing and reading abilities of young people and, as a result, to promote self-confidence, critical thinking, literacy, and cultural and environmental awareness.

The two schools selected: Likelike Elementary School and Halau Lokahi Public Charter School in Kalihi, are low-income schools, with a high percentage of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Island students. Each creative writing program will culminate in a community public reading and a published anthology of students’ work. A writer will be selected from our roster of writers to teach children in each school how to find their voice and enjoy writing about their environment, culture and place.

This WISP program is based on very successful writers in the schools programs in several states on the mainland. This project has been developed in partnership with, and mentored by, the Missoula Writing Collaborative (MWC), who have been running a similar program since 1994. The MWC program has grown to fifteen school residencies in western Montana teaching literary competence, critical thinking, cultural awareness, and artistic joy through creative writing.

For more information please read our newsletters in the SHARE section of our website.

"My Hawai'i Story" writing contest. The Hawai'i Conservation Alliance (HCA) and the Pacific Writers Connection (PWC) have embarked in this educational outreach project for middle and intermediate schools statewide. The project closed May 17, 2007 and 25 winners were announced on July 1, 2007.
My Hawai'i Story Project

Over 320 stories and poems were received from students and were assessed by 33 reviewers. The 25 top writers’ poems and stories will be featured at the annual Hawai’i Conservation Conference (HCA) on July 25, 2007.

Tuesday July 24, 2007, 9-11am :Nature Writers' Workshop exclusively for the 25 My Hawai’i winners and their teachers. This is a great opportunity for the young writers to meet professional Nature writers and learn from them. Some winners and their teachers are coming from the Big Island. In the afternoon the students will attend the Conservation Film Festival.

Wednesday July 25, 2007 10.30am-1.00pm : My Hawai’i Award Ceremony Awards will be presented to the 25 winners at the Hawai’i Conservation Conference by Governor Lingle. Each winner will receive a copy of the My Hawaii Anthology 2007 filled with their stories and poems and well as other prizes.

After the award presentations we will have a "Story Blast" and "Poetry Slam" during lunchtime for those winners who would like to read their story or poem to the audience of conservation managers and scientists attending the conference.

8:30-2:00pm Celebrate Reading: Book Clubs & Literature Festival. PWC is collaborating with UH Manoa Journal and The Hawai’i Writing Project to sponsor Tahitian novelist Celestine Hitiura Vaite (author of Breadfruit, Frangipani and Tiare). The festival opens with "Reading Stories and Writing Stories: A Reading and Talk," by Haruki Murakami, 26 April at 7:30 pm in the UH Manoa Campus Center Ballroom. Admission is free, but you need to contact organizer Lorna Hershinow by April 20, call:239-9726 or email her to register and pre-order pizza lunch for $5.

Friday to Sunday, January 5-7, 2007
Hanalei Writers' Retreat Workshop, "Speaking to the Ocean and the Land: Sharing Poetry and Stories" with poet Robert Sullivan and fiction writer/poet Anne Kennedy, at Limahuli Garden, Kaua'i.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006
7:30 to 9:00 pm Pacific Writers' Connection Panel "Restoring Songs of the Forest"
at the 2006 Hawai'i Conservation Conference, "Sustainability: Mauka to Makai" at the Hawai'i Convention Center in Honolulu, Hawai'i.
Please join us and hear Dr. John L. Culliney speak on Hawai'i in the Balance; Dr. Mark Walters speak about his new book "Seeking the Sacred Raven: Alala's Story; and Kahikina de Silva and Maya Saffery mo'olelo about "Malama Aina -- a Hawaiian view of Sustainability".

Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Pacific Writers' Connection presents the Launch of UH Manoa Journal's Varua Tupu at La Maison James Norman Hall, Papeete, Tahiti. Varua Tupu ("The Spirit Grows")is a collection of moving and inspiring stories written by Indigenous authors from Tahiti and her Islands --- contemporary fiction, poetry, memoir and essays translated into English. The book also features original paintings by Bobby Holcomb, and photographic essays. It is edited by Frank Stewart, Kareva Mateata-Allain and Alexander Dale Mawyer.

The Pacific Writers’ Connection present Languages of the Land 2005, a celebration giving voice to the living kinship of landscape, environment, humanity, culture and the spirit of sacred places. Join us in August for readings and stimulating conversations with distinguished writers from Hawai’i, the Pacific and the continental U.S.

Cost: $25 for Launch/reception, conversations with writers and public reading.
For further information please call the Pacific Writers’ Connection, Phone: 230-1651

SPONSORS
The Charles W. Engelhard Foundation, The Prop Foundation, Center for Pacific Island Studies, UH

Partners: Young of Heart Workshop, Honolulu Academy of Arts; East-West Center; Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, UH; Native Books, Manoa Journal.

Ku’ualoha Ho’omanawanui is a Hawaiian writer and editor of ‘Oiwi, a native Hawaiian journal dedicated to the thoughts and works of Hawaiian writers. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in English at the University of Hawai‘i, Mänoa. Her dissertation is an analysis of 19th century Pele literature and the politics of publishing and translation during this unstable period in Hawaii’s history. She is the recipient of a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship.

Debra Magpie Earling is a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Montana. She teaches at the University of Montana in the Creative Writing Program and has also taught in the department of Native American Studies. She has published fiction and essays in numerous anthologies and journals including The Best Last Place; Talking Leaves: An Anthology of Native American Writers; The Best of Northern Lights; Circle of Women; Reinventing the Enemy’s Language and Ploughshares. In 2003 her novel Perma Red won the American Book Award, the WILLA award, and the Spur Award, among others.

Kim Stafford is Director of the Northwest Writing Institute and the William Stafford Center at Lewis & Clark College in Oregon, where he has taught since 1979. He holds a Ph.D. in medieval literature and is an accomplished writer with a dozen works of poetry and prose to his credit. One of his books, Having Everything Right, won a citation for excellence from the Western States Book Awards in 1986. Stafford has received creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Governor’s Art Award recognizing his contributions to Oregon’s literary culture.

Larissa Behrendt is Professor of Law and Indigenous Studies and Director of the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. She is a practicing lawyer and lecturer who has worked with the United Nations and sits on various legal councils and committees. Behrendt has published on property law, indigenous rights, dispute resolution and Aboriginal women’s issues. With her first novel, Home, Behrendt weaves a family’s contemporary Aboriginal lives with past experiences to create a sprawling illustration on the impact of institutions, prejudice and social stigma on Indigenous Australians. Home recently won the Commonwealth Book Prize.

Mark Tredinnick is a writer, teaches ecology and literature, and runs workshops in creative nonfiction and nature writing at centers across Australia. In 2004, Mark edited A Place on Earth: An Anthology of Nature Writing from North America and Australia, a unique collection of essays from highly acclaimed nature writers in both countries. His essays and book reviews appear regularly in Australia’s premier news magazine, The Bulletin. His dissertation, Writing In the Wild, a study of the literature of place, is due for publication this year.

August 2005 Language of the Land, with the theme of Water, Land and Values: KaWai, Ka ‘Aina a me nã ,Loina, was a celebration of writers and writing, giving voice to the living kinship of landscape, environment, hurnanity culture and the spirit of sacred places. Guest writers included Ku’ualoha Ho’omanawanui, Larissa Behrendt, Mark Tredinnick, Kim Stafford, Debra Magpie Earling, and Frank Stewart. This program, which was attended by over 250 writers and readers, included public readings in both. Honolulu and Hana, Maui, stimulating conversations with writers, and a community writing workshop in Hana, Maui.

February 2005 Barry Lopez Public Readings, Honolulu and Hana, cosponsored by Manoa Journal, University of Hawai’i. and PWC.

January 2005 Hanalei Retreat Writers’ Workshop, January 6-9, tutored by acclaimed writer David James D uncan, attended by 15 writers frorn Kaua’ i and 0 ‘ahu

January 2004 Hanalei Writers’ Retreat held in Hanalei, Kaua’i, led by David James Duncan, and attended by 14 writers from Honolulu and Kauai.

October 2002 The Language of’ the Land 2002, a celebration of Place through Writing, the Arts and Malama ‘Ama - Caring for the Land, organized by PWC, the Orion Society and the:Hawai’i.Island Writers Association. This major writer’s gathering was held in Honolulu and held the Big island of Hawai’i.

March 2002 Environmental writing workshops with public readings led by and featuring two nationally acclaimed nature writers, William Kittredge and .Annick Smith of Montana. Public readings at the Bishop Museum and the Outrigger Hotel who co-sponsored the events. The workshops focused on helping local writers develop their skills in nature and place-based writing. The series concluded with a reading by workshop participants at Native Books.

February 2002 PWC Breakfast Meeting held at the Pacific Club, Honolulu attended by over 30 community leaders to discuss the program and launch of The Language of the Land series of writing events for October.

October 2001 Open Space Gathering of’ Writers held at the Bishop Museum, Honolulu where over 100 people met to discuss writing, environmental issues, traditions and culture and participated to explore the interests and needs of Hawai’i and Pacific region writers. PWC’s goals were developed as a result of feedback from this gathering

August 2001 Mystery and Shadows in Ordlinary Life, PWC Writers workshop held in partnership with Native Books, held over 3 days in Honolulu, led by distinguished writer and professor Philip Lopate of Columbia University, New York. Twenty writers from Honolulu participated.

March 2001 Meeting of PWC principals and representatives from the Orion Society at Hana, Maui following the John Hay Award presentation to William S. Merwin to discuss the needs of writers in Hawai’i and the Pacific

PWC Gathering Environmentalists an d Writers , Hana , Maui. Hawai’i members of this group included Pat Tummons, publisher of Environment Hawai’I; author Gavan Daws; representatives Hermina Morita and Kalani English; Valerie Monson of the Maui News; William Mull; Paul Alan Cox, director of the Tropical Botanical Garden; writer Pam Frierson; Art Medeiros; Cathy Davenport; Mary Evanson; Leland and Karen Miyano; Frederick Wichman; authors Carl Lindquist and Carol Wilcox; and Patty and Dan Omer, were among the first to encourage and offer support for this endeavor.

Featured writers including Kealoha, Neal Shusterman, Brandy McDougall, Mahealani Perez-Wendt,Terry Trueman, Nyla Fujii-Babb, Joe Tsujimoto, Rodney Morales, Lisa Linn Kanae, Linda Nagata, Patricia Wood, Kate Elliott and David Stannard. Other Celebrate Reading Festivals will also be held on Hawaii and Maui. All these Festivals are free and open to the public.