2012 Ka Palapala Pookela Awards

The annual Ka Palapala Po‘okela Awards, presented by the Hawai‘i Book Publishers Association, honor Hawai‘i’s best books, authors, and illustrators. This year’s award ceremony will be held on Friday, May 11, 2012, at 6 pm, at Bishop Museum’s Atherton Halau. A reception and book signing will follow at 7:30 pm., in the museum’s Hawaiian Hall Atrium and Courtyard.

Tickets are $25 and include heavy pupu buffet and cocktails, gourmet chocolate truffles by Choco le‘a, and entertainment by Ka ‘Eha. Book sale and author signing proceeds to benefit Bishop Museum. Tickets can be purchased at Native Books/Na Mea Hawai‘i at Ward Warehouse (596-8885). For more information, email aloha@hawaiibooks.org.

This year’s UH Press nominees are:

Links to the Past: The Work of Early Hawaiian Artisans, by Wendy S. Arbeit
(Excellence in Hawaiian Culture, Excellence in Text or Reference, Excellence in Special Interest)

Backstage in a Bureaucracy: Politics and Public Service by Susan Chandler and Richard C. Pratt
(Excellence in Nonfiction)

No Nā Mamo: Traditional and Contemporary Hawaiian Beliefs and Practices by Malcolm Nāea Chun
(Excellence in Hawaiian Culture, Excellence in Nonfiction, Excellence in Design)

Hawaiian Surfing: Traditions from the Past by John R. K. Clark
(Excellence in Hawaiian Culture, Excellence in Text or Reference, Excellence in Nonfiction, Excellence in Design)

Conservation of Pacific Sea Turtles by Peter Dutton, Dale Squires, and Mahfuzuddin Ahmed
(Excellence in Natural Science)

Fighting in Paradise: Labor Unions, Racism, and Communists in the Making of Modern Hawai‘i by Gerald Horne
(Excellence in Nonfiction)

Murder Leaves Its Mark by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl
(Excellence in Literature)

People and Cultures of Hawai‘i: The Evolution of Culture and Ethnicity edited by John F. McDermott and Naleen Naupaka Andrade
(Excellence in Text or Reference)

I Ulu I Ke Kumu: The Hawai‘inuiākea Monograph edited by Puakea Nogelmeier
(Excellence in Hawaiian Culture)

Big Happiness: The Life and Death of a Modern Hawaiian Warrior by Mark Panek
(Excellence in Nonfiction)

Shore Fishes of Easter Island by John E. Randall and Alfredo Cea
(Excellence in Natural Science)

Living Spirit: Literature and Resurgence in Okinawa edited by Frank Stewart and Katsunori Yamazato
(Excellence in Literature)

Waves of Resistance: Surfing and History in Twentieth-Century Hawai‘i by Isaiah Helekunihi Walker
(Excellence in Nonfiction, Excellence in Design)