Hilo Rains

In her first collection of poetry, Juliet S. Kono shares her family’s immigrant past and captures in poetic memory a time and place. Rich in detail, the work spans two generations and examines the daily events of life on the sugar plantation and growing up Japanese American in Hawaiʻi on the Big Island. Kono’s sharp observational skills and lyrical voice paint a picture that resonates with both the tenderness and strength of clear-eyed memory. The collection includes one short story and archival family photographs.

Winner of the 1991 James Clavell Award for Fiction and the 1991 Elliot Cades Award for Literature.