Sep
You won’t want to miss this upcoming virtual pop-up reading – we’re so excited to tell you more about the writers who will be sharing their work! Keep reading to learn more.
Melissa Llanes Brownlee (she/her), a native Hawaiian writer, has work forthcoming in Prairie Schooner. Preorder Bitter over Sweet. Find her @lumchanmfa and melissallanesbrownlee.com.
Donald Carreira Ching was born and raised in Kahaluʻu on the island of Oʻahu. He earned his PhD in English from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. His debut novel, Between Sky and Sea: A Family’s Struggle, was published by Bamboo Ridge Press in 2015 and was awarded the Ka Palapala Poʻokela award for excellence in literature, honorable mention, and is listed by Honolulu Magazine as one of Hawaiʻi’s “essential books.” His writing has appeared in numerous publications and anthologies locally and elsewhere, including StoryQuarterly, Every Day Fiction, and RHINO. In 2018, he was awarded the Elliot Cades award for Literature, Emerging Writer, Hawaiʻi’s most prestigious literary award. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Writing at Leeward Community College. His latest short story collection Blood Work and Other Stories was published by Bamboo Ridge Press earlier this year, and he recently completed a near-future eco-thriller (querying).
Joseph Han is the author of Nuclear Family, named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and a best book of the year by NPR and Time Magazine. He is a 2022 National Book Foundation ‘5 Under 35’ honoree and an Assistant Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Kalehua Kim is a poet living in the Pacific Northwest. Born of Hawaiian, Chinese, Filipino and Portuguese descent, her multicultural background informs much of her work. A 2023 winner of the James Welch Prize for Indigenous Poets, she earned her MFA from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University. She is a 2023 and 2024 Fellow with the Indigenous Nations Poets and her poems have appeared in Poetry Northwest, Denver Quarterly, Calyx, and ʻŌiwi, A Native Hawaiian Journal. As a recipient of the 2024 Trio House Press Editors Choice Prize, her first collection of poems, Mele, was released in 2025.
Jonathon Medeiros teaches and learn about language at Kauaʻi High, his alma mater. He frequently writes about education, equity, place, and the power of curiosity, which kills that kind of boredom that leads to apathy. If you changed all of your mistakes and regrets, you’d erase yourself. Jonathon walks, paddles, surfs, and enjoys spending time with his brilliant wife and daughters. His poems and essays have been published in various journals, including Bamboo Ridge, Hawaiʻi Pacific Review, English Journal, Mystic Picnic, and The Hopkins Review. Much of his writing is collected at jonathonmedeiros.com; visit him there or in the line up.
Shareen K. Murayama is the author of three poetry books Housebreak (Bad Betty Press, 2022), Hey Girl, Are You in the Experimental Group (Harbor Editions, 2022), and The Mother Who Couldn’t Describe a Thing if She Could (Harbor Editions, 2024). She’s a Japanese American, Okinawan American poet and educator, and a Jack Hazard Fellow. She lives in Honolulu and supports the #litcommunity @AmBusyPoeming.
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