Folks You Meet in Longs and Other Stories

Maui-born Lee Cataluna is the award-winning playwright of many of Hawaii’s best-loved and most-produced plays and musicals.

She was commissioned by La Jolla Playhouse and Honolulu Theatre for Youth to write the 2018 POP tour play, “Home of the Brave,” based on stories collected through hundreds of interviews with children from military families. Named in American Theatre’s 2018 list of Native Writers, her work for the stage includes “The Great Kauai Train Robbery,” inspired by the true story of her great-grandmother’s brother, Kaimiola Hali, who was wrongly convicted in Hawaii’s only train heist.

Her beloved book, “Folks You Meet in Longs,” published in 2005 and in its 6th printing, is studied in college literature and acting classes. Her novel,“Three Years on Doreen’s Sofa,” is a favorite of book clubs, and her children’s book, “Ordinary Ohana,” was selected for the literacy residency for Arts=Opportunity of California.

For more than a decade, she’s been a popular metro columnist for Hawaii’s largest daily newspaper.

She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California, Riverside and has taught writing both at an elite prep school and in a maximum-security prison.

— from leecataluna.com