Bamboo Ridge Writers Institute V(irtual)

We’ve missed seeing you and hope you’ll join us for a weekend of writing and talk-story. Come ZOOM with us!

Saturday, October 24

<9:15 am – 10:30 am>
Getting Published & Publishing in Hawai‘i
David DeLuca, Craig Santos Perez, Dawn Sakamoto Paiva, and Lee A. Tonouchi

The scoops on getting published from two writers and two local commercial publishers. Panelists share experience, advice, and words of wisdom from different perspectives. Local and national opportunities and what book publishers are doing or looking for now and in the changing future.

<10:45 am – 12:00 pm>
Exploring Hawai‘i’s Literary Landscape
Jocelyn Kapumealani Ng, Anjoli Roy, Don Wallace, and Aiko Yamashiro

What makes Hawaiʻi’s literary community? People are creating new spaces and places for literature, both virtual and analog. Panelists will discuss our dynamic local literary landscape past and present, how we can participate, and how we can perpetuate its growth for the future.

<12:15 pm – 1:15 pm>
Reading BReak

Bring your own bento and beverage! Relax and enjoy a virtual reading break with writers from Bamboo Ridge Issue #118. It’s a special sneak peek at our latest anthology edited by Juliet S. Kono and Jean Yamasaki Toyama.

<1:30 pm – 2:30 pm>
Working While Writing: Motivation & Management
Don Carreira Ching, Scott Kikkawa, Wing Tek Lum, and Christy Passion

How do writers who have full-time jobs manage to keep writing?  Especially when their jobs are far from literary? Join four professionals from various fields as they talk about how they juggle their full-time jobs with their passion for writing.

 

Sunday, October 25

*Workshops include anonymous “First-Page” critiques. Send your first pages to us via email at read@bambooridge.org by October 17th!

<9:30 am – 12:00 am>
Documentary Poetry and Renshi
Bamboo Ridge Renshi Poets

Explore the challenges and potential power of linked poems that use nonliterary texts, such as news articles, public records, court transcripts, and historical writings, as source material.

<9:30 am – 12:00 am>
Talk Story: Novel Writing
Lois-Ann Yamanaka

Straight-up answers to everything from writing a draft to polishing a manuscript. Ask me ANYTHING (except how much I weigh), and I will share my mana‘o with you.

<12:30 pm – 3:00 pm>
Befriending Chaos: Poetry, Mental Health, and Healing
Brenda Kwon and Susan M. Schultz

Spiritual teacher Ram Dass said, “The only thing that brings you down is your own mind.” Poetry reflects how we see the world and can help us break free of the trap of our minds. Join us for an afternoon of meditation, poetry exercises, and discussion in the era of COVID and powerful social change.

<12:30 pm – 3:00 pm>
Character, Conflict, and Motivation:
Understanding What Drives Short Story
Donald Carreira Ching

Kurt Vonnegut advised writers to give readers at least one character to root for. This workshop will focus on the importance of crafting characters that matter and how conflict and motivation are central to every other element of short story.

Getting Published & Publishing in Hawai‘i

David DeLuca

David is currently the Director of Publishing and COO of Bess Press Inc., a Honolulu based publishing company developing academic and popular interest books and media. DeLuca started a sister company to Bess Press, called Pass-the-Projects, that is focused on media-development and managing collaborative projects with community organizations and businesses to enrich providing a product or service by telling a story through immersive design such as apps, installations, and more. David is also the owner of da Shop: books + curiosities, which is a local independent bookstore and events space. DeLuca’s career began with film production in Thailand and Italy, producing educational documentaries focused on environmental awareness and natural disasters. David is the acting Chairman for the annual Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival, currently serves on the Board of Directors for Hawaiʻi Public Radio, and previously served as President to the Hawai‘i Book Publishers Association, all 501(c) 3 non-profits.

Dawn Sakamoto Paiva

Dawn Sakamoto Paiva is the Director of Sales and Marketing at Watermark Publishing and Legacy Isle Publishing.  She has over twenty years of experience in the book and magazine publishing industries. In her role at Watermark and Legacy Isle, she assists with acquisitions, editing, design and production, and coaches authors through the publicity, promotions and and distribution phases of publishing.

Craig Santos Perez

Craig Santos Perez is the author of five books of poetry, the co-founder of Ala Press (the only publisher in the US dedicated to Pacific literature) and the co-editor of five anthologies of Pacific literature and eco-literature. He is a professor of creative writing in the English department at UH Mānoa. Visit craigsantosperez.com for more on his current projects.

Lee A. Tonouchi

“Da Pidgin Guerrilla” Lee A. Tonouchi’s most recentest book wuz his children’s picture book Okinawan Princess: Da Legend of Hajichi Tattoos (Bess Press) which won one 2020 Skipping Stones Honor Award. His Pidgin poetry collection Significant Moments in da Life of Oriental Faddah and Son (Bess Press) won da 2013 Association for Asian American Studies Book Award. His oddah books include his Pidgin short story collection Da Word (Bamboo Ridge Press), his Pidgin essay collection Living Pidgin (Tinfish Press), Da Kine Dictionary (Bess Press), and Buss Laugh (Bess Press). He had a buncha plays produced before by Kumu Kahua Theatre, da Honolulu Theatre for Youth, and East West Players. An’den he’s also one food critic for frolichawaii.com.

Exploring Hawai‘i’s Literary Landscape

Jocelyn Kapumealani Ng

Jocelyn Kapumealani Ng is a queer multi-dimensional creative of Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese descent. Her multimedia spoken word experience, “She Who Dies to Live,” was performed at the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Brisbane (2019) and at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center Culture Lab ‘Ae Kai in Honolulu (2017). She is the former outreach coordinator for Pacific Tongues. She has performed and conducted pedagogical development and spoken word poetry workshops throughout the Hawaiian Islands, across the continental United States as well as in Guahan, the Marshall Islands, Aotearoa, and Australia. Follow her adventures on Instagram @jocelynkng.

Anjoli Roy

Anjoli Roy cohosts It’s Lit, a literature and music podcast that was born on KTUH in November 2016 and has featured more than 100 writers to date. She is from Pasadena, California, a graduate of UH Mānoa’s Department of English, and a one-time coeditor of Hawaiʻi Review and the online literary journal Vice-Versa. She lives in Makiki with her partner. You can connect with Anjoli at her website anjoliroy.com and @itslitwithphdj on Instagram and Facebook.

Don Wallace

Don Wallace is the author of four books and has written for numerous magazines and journals. His latest book is The French House. He also wrote the documentary film Those Who Came Before: The Musical Journey of Eddie Kamae. At Honolulu Magazine his book projects included organizing a poll of 70 contributors to create a comprehensive listing of local literature, which he wrote up in “50 Essential Hawai‘i Books” with an additional “Roll of Honor” of 37 books. He was awarded the 2020 Loretta A. Petrie Award for outstanding service to literature and the 2018 Body of Work by a Single Writer award from the Society of Professional Journalists Hawai‘i Chapter. For 27 years a New York City magazine editor at The New York Times, Conde Nast, Time Inc. and the Hearst Corporation, he also reviewed novels for Kirkus Reviews. Born in Long Beach, Calif., he first visited Hawai‘i in 1969 and is married to local author Mindy Eun Soo Pennybacker, former editor of Honolulu Weekly and current reporter at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. After five years as Honolulu Magazine’s senior editor, he is now contributing editor. Find more info on his website.

Aiko Yamashiro

Aiko was raised in Kāneʻohe and her families were raised in Kāneʻohe, Puʻunēnē, Yanbaru, and Agaña Heights. She has taught decolonial Pacific literature and community-engaged poetry for the UH Mānoa English Department, has worked as an editor and event planner for the Center for Biographical Research, and co-organizes the annual Nā Hua Ea poetry and mele event in windward Oʻahu. She coedited The Value of Hawaiʻi 2: Ancestral Roots, Oceanic Visions (UH Press, 2014), and The Value of Hawaiʻi 3: Hulihia (forthcoming from UH Press 2020), and her poetry and essays can also be found on Ke Kaupu Hehi Ale, blackmail press, Spiral Orb, and on the podcast It’s Lit with PhDJ. She has a PhD in English from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and currently works as the executive director of Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities.

Working While Writing: Motivation & Management

Donald Carreira Ching

Donald Carreira Ching was born and raised in Kahaluʻu, on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. His poetry and fiction have appeared in publications such as Rio Grande Review, Hawaiʻi Review, and Every Day Fiction. In 2015, his debut novel, Between Sky and Sea: a Family’s Struggle, was published by Bamboo Ridge Press. In 2018, he received the Elliot Cades Award for Literature, Emerging Writer. He is currently working on a collection of short stories and teaching writing at Leeward Community College. Find out more at his website.

Scott Kikkawa

Scott Kikkawa writes noir detective fiction set in territorial Honolulu in the 1950s, a time when people were much better dressed and much less comfortable. He is the recipient of the Elliot Cades Award for Literature, Emerging Writer. His debut novel, Kona Winds, was published as Bamboo Ridge Issue 116 and his second novel, Red Dirt, is scheduled to be released in Fall 2021 as Bamboo Ridge Issue 120. By day (and lots of nights), he is a federal law enforcement officer.

Wing Tek Lum

Wing Tek Lum is a Honolulu businessman and poet. His first collection of poetry, Expounding the Doubtful Points, was published by Bamboo Ridge Press in 1987 and was the winner of the 1988 Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award and the 1988 Association for Asian American Studies National Book Award. With Makoto Ooka, Joseph Stanton, and Jean Yamasaki Toyama, Lum participated in a collaborative work of linked verse, which was published as What the Kite Thinks by Summer Session, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, in 1994. His book of documentary poems, Nanjing Massacre: Poems, won the Association for Asian American Studies Award for Creative Writing: Poetry in 2015.

Christy Passion

Christy Passion is a critical care nurse and poet. Her poetry has won numerous awards and is featured in local and US journals. Her first solo book of poetry, Still Out of Place, and her co-authored book of poetry What We Must Remember were awarded honorable mention by the Hawai‘i Book Publishers Association. Currently, her work is featured in the 2020 Norton Anthology When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through.

Masterclass Leaders: Poetry

Ann Inoshita

Ann Inoshita was born and raised on Oʻahu. She has a book of poems, Mānoa Stream (Kahuaomānoa Press), and she co-authored No Choice but to Follow and What We Must Remember, linked poetry (renshi) books (Bamboo Ridge Press). Her short play, Wea I Stay: A Play in Hawai‘i, was included in The Statehood Project performed by Kumu Kahua Theatre and published by Fat Ulu Productions. Her creative works have been anthologized widely in local, national, and international journals. Her poem “TV” (written in Hawaiʻi Creole English, Pidgin) was published in Reel Verse: Poems About the Movies (Penguin Random House). She teaches at Leeward Community College.

Juliet S. Kono

Juliet S. Kono is the author of several books: Hilo Rains, Tsunami Years, Ho‘olulu Park and the Pepsodent Smile, The Bravest Opihi, and Anshū, a novel. She has co-authored two books of renshi (linked poetry): No Choice but to Follow and What We Must Remember. Her work has appeared in many anthologies and collections and she is the recipient of several awards. When not busy as editor at Bamboo Ridge Press she is retired and lives with her husband in Honolulu.

Christy Passion

Christy Passion is a critical care nurse and poet. Her poetry has won numerous awards and is featured in local and US journals. Her first solo book of poetry, Still Out of Place, and her co-authored book of poetry What We Must Remember were awarded honorable mention by the Hawai‘i Book Publishers Association. Currently, her work is featured in the 2020 Norton Anthology When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through.

Jean Yamasaki Toyama

Jean Yamasaki Toyama is professor emerita of French and former Associate Dean of the College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Her latest books include a volume of poetry, Prepositions; a book of short stories, The Piano Tuner’s Wife; and a children’s book, Kelli’s Hanauma Friends, poems and art about Hawaiian reef dwellers. She is a Beckett scholar and currently working with librarian Gail Kuroda to digitize out-of-print issues of Bamboo Ridge and make them available for free with open access via the Kapiʻolani Community College repository.

Masterclass Leaders: Poetry and Fiction

Brenda Kwon

Brenda Kwon, born and raised in Hawai‘i, is the proud daughter of an immigrant. Author of The Sum of Breathing and Beyond Ke‘eaumoku, she has been published in various journals and anthologies, and has read and performed her poetry both nationally and internationally. A retiree of the local slam poetry scene, she teaches composition and yoga, and is a 500-hr Registered Yoga Teacher. She is proud to have shared the stage with Susan Schultz in 2014 as a Cades Literary Award winner and is even more delighted that she gets to see Susan twice weekly on Zoom for yoga nidra classes. She is the maid of three cats, but she loves all animals. Find out more at her website brendakwon.com.

Susan M. Schultz

Susan M. Schultz has lived and taught in Hawai‘i since 1990. She is the author of ten or so books of poetry and poetic prose, as well as a book of criticism, and edited volumes on poetic form and the lineage of John Ashbery. For nearly a quarter century, she edited Tinfish Press, a major small press in the Pacific region. She lives with her family in Kahalu‘u (and sometimes Volcano) and roots for the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. She does yoga nidra under Brenda Kwon’s able tutelage and is a Buddhist practitioner.

Donald Carreira Ching

Donald Carreira Ching was born and raised in Kahaluʻu, on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. His poetry and fiction have appeared in publications such as Rio Grande Review, Hawaiʻi Review, and Every Day Fiction. In 2015, his debut novel, Between Sky and Sea: a Family’s Struggle, was published by Bamboo Ridge Press. In 2018, he received the Elliot Cades Award for Literature, Emerging Writer. He is currently working on a collection of short stories and teaching writing at Leeward Community College. Find out more at his website.

Lois-Ann Yamanaka

Lois-Ann Yamanaka (Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre, Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers, Blu’s Hanging, Heads by Harry, Name Me Nobody, Behold the Many, The Heart’s Language) continues to write in an immensely changing publishing landscape. She will ride the times on the three rules she set for herself when she started: 1. I will never let anyone censor me. 2. I will never censor myself. 3. I will give freely back for the many blessings I have received from God. Also, she hasn’t shaved her armpits since her business, Naʻau Learning Center, first shut its doors on March 23, 2020.

Countdown until BRWI!