Author: UH Press Marketing

2015 Ka Palapala Po‘okela Awards: UH Press Nominees

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KaPalapala2015-inviteThe 22nd annual Ka Palapala Po‘okela Awards celebration is scheduled for Thursday, April 23, 6 to 9 p.m., at Imin Conference Center (Jefferson Hall) at the East-West Center, which adjoins University of Hawai‘i’s Mānoa campus. Hawaii News Now reporter/commentator Howard Dicus will again be the ceremony emcee. The awards are presented annually by Hawai‘i Book Publishers Association to honor Hawai‘i’s finest books and their authors, illustrators, designers, and publishers.

Titles with a 2014 copyright date were eligible for this year’s awards. UH Press has a wonderful group of nominees (listed alphabetically by author’s name):

North Shore Place Names: Ka‘ena to Kahuku, by John R. K. Clark
(Excellence in Hawaiian Language, Culture & History)

Ocean to Plate: Cooking Fish with Hawai‘i’s Kusuma Cooray, by Kusuma Cooray; designed by Mardee Melton
(Excellence in Cookbooks; Excellence in Design)

Hawaiian Plant Life: Vegetation and Flora, by Robert J. Gustafson, Derral R. Herbst, and Philip W. Rundel; designed by Mardee Melton
(Excellence in Illustrative or Photographic Books; Excellence in Natural Science; Excellence in Design)

‘Ike Ulana Lau Hala: The Vitality and Vibrancy of Lau Hala Weaving Traditions in Hawai‘i, edited by Lia O’Neill Keawe, Marsha MacDowell, and C. Kurt Dewhurst
(Excellence in Hawaiian Language, Culture & History)

Kua‘āina Kahiko: Life and Land in Ancient Kahikinui, Maui, by Patrick Vinton Kirch
(Excellence in Hawaiian Language, Culture & History; Excellence in Nonfiction)

Sovereign Sugar: Industry and Environment in Hawai‘i, by Carol A. MacLennan
(Excellence in Nonfiction)

From Race to Ethnicity: Interpreting Japanese American Experiences in Hawai‘i, by Jonathan Y. Okamura
(Excellence in Nonfiction)

I Ulu I Ka ‘Aina: Land, edited by Jonathan Osorio
(Excellence in Hawaiian Language, Culture & History)

The Watersmart Garden: 100 Great Plants for the Tropical Xeriscape, by Fred D. Rauch and Paul R. Weissich
(Excellence in Natural Science)

Local Story: The Massie-Kahahawai Case and the Culture of History, by John P. Rosa
(Excellence in Nonfiction)

Call Me Captain: A Memoir of a Woman at Sea, by Susan Scott
(Excellence in Nonfiction)

Wahine Volleyball: 40 Years Coaching Hawai‘i’s Team, by Dave Shoji with Ann Miller; designed by Julie Matsuo-Chun
(Excellence in Special-Interest Books; Excellence in Design)

Surfing Places, Surfboard Makers: Craft, Creativity, and Cultural Heritage in Hawai‘i, California, and Australia; by Andrew Warren and Chris Gibson
(Excellence in Special-Interest Books)

The Value of Hawai‘i 2: Ancestral Roots, Oceanic Visions; edited by Aiko Yamashiro and Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua
(Excellence in Nonfiction)

In addition to the above UHP titles, ones distributed by UH Press were nominated by their respective publishers:

‘Io Lani: The Hawaiian Hawk; photographs by William S. Chillingworth with essays by John L. Culliney

Breaking the Silence: Lessons of Democracy and Social Justice from the World War II Honouliuli Internment and POW Camp in Hawai‘i, edited by Suzanne Falgout and Linda Nishigaya

Secrets of Diamond Head : A History and Trail Guide, by Denby Fawcett

Lihu‘e: Root and Branch of a Hawai‘i Town, by Pat L. Griffin

Keka‘a: The Making and Saving of North Beach West Maui, by Sydney Lehua Iaukea

Reflections of Honor: The Untold Story of a Nisei Spy, by Lorraine Ward and Katherine Erwin with Yoshinobu Oshiro

For a complete list of this year’s nominees, read the Hawaii Book Blog post.

Kudos and good wishes to all!

Spring Talks by Hawai‘i Authors

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Wahine VolleyballThursday, March 19, 12 noon to 1:15 p.m.
UH women’s volleyball coach Dave Shoji and coauthor Ann Miller share the backstory of their collaboration on Wahine Volleyball: 40 Years Coaching Hawai‘i’s Team, at Kuykendall 410, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Their talk is part of the Brown Bag Biography series sponsored by the Center for Biographical Research. UH Mānoa Bookstore will have books available for purchase and signing at the talk. For more information, click here for the event flyer. [Apologies for the late timing of this announcement.]
If you missed it earlier, read the terrific HONOLULU Magazine feature that ran in the November 2014 issue.
North Shore Place Names
Thursday, March 19, 7:30 p.m.
Author John R. K. Clark presents an illustrated lecture on the fascinating stories and historical nuggets from his newest book, North Shore Place Names: Kahuku to Ka‘ena. The free event is sponsored by the Hawaiian Historical Society but will take place at Kapi’olani Community College cafeteria (Hale ‘Ōhi’a). For details, including parking instructions, see the HHS description.
The March issue of Ka Wai Ola published an insightful story on how Clark researched his book using OHA’s Papakilo database of Hawaiian-language newspapers from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries.
Call Me CaptainSaturday, March 21, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.
“Ocean Watch” columnist Susan Scott will be at the Ko‘olau Writers Workshop to conduct one of the sessions on creative nonfiction. She recently returned from a successful West Coast speaking tour for her newest book, Call Me Captain: A Memoir of a Woman at Sea.
If it’s too late to register for the workshop, check out the Sunday feature (this version ran later in the Mercury News) that resulted from her tour—it appeared not only in California but re-ran in dailies in Pennsylvania.

UH Press at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, March 27-30, Philadelphia

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AAS-2014-meetingUniversity of Hawai‘i Press is exhibiting at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, March 27-30, held this year at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown hotel.

We have a larger than usual contingent attending: UHP director Michael Duckworth; editors Patricia Crosby, Pamela Kelley, and Stephanie Chun; marketing director Colins Kawai; and sales manager Royden Muranaka. Please visit us at booths 110-116 to see our latest titles and take advantage of the conference offer of a 20% discount and free shipping in the U.S. (Free shipping applies only to orders received or placed at the conference.) Our new Asian Studies print catalog will also be distributed.

Exhibiting across the aisle from us are publishing partners: Cornell University East Asia Program (booth 111), MerwinAsia and Seoul Selection (booth 113), NIAS Press-Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (booth 117), and NUS Press-Singapore (booth 115).

See you in Philly!

Waves of Resistance Wins Baldridge Prize for History

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Walker-WavesCongratulations to BYU-Hawaii history professor Dr. Isaiah Walker on being awarded the Kenneth W. Baldridge Prize for his book, Waves of Resistance: Surfing and History in Twentieth-Century Hawai‘i. The prize was announced by the Hawai‘i chapter of the Phi Alpha Theta honor society at their annual regional conference held March 8 at the University of Hawai‘i’s Mānoa campus. The Baldridge Prize recognizes the best book in any field of history written by a resident of Hawai‘i.

Dubious Gastronomy: The Cultural Politics of Eating Asian in the USA

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Ku-Dubious GastronomyDubious Gastronomy is the inaugural title in the Food in Asia and the Pacific series—

California roll, Chinese take-out, American-made kimchi, dogmeat, monosodium glutamate, SPAM—all are examples of what Robert Ji-Song Ku calls “dubious” foods. Strongly associated with Asian and Asian American gastronomy, they are commonly understood as ersatz, depraved, or simply bad. In Dubious Gastronomy, Ku contends that these foods are viewed similarly to Asians in the United States, in that the Asian presence, be it culinary or corporeal, is often considered watered-down, counterfeit, or debased manifestations of the “real thing.” The American expression of Asianness is defined as doubly inauthentic—as insufficiently Asian and unreliably American when measured against a largely ideological if not entirely political standard of authentic Asia and America.

In critically considering the impure and hybridized with serious and often whimsical intent, he argues that while the notion of cultural authenticity is troubled, troubling, and troublesome, the apocryphal is not necessarily a bad thing: The dubious can be and is often quite delicious.

Exhibiting the Past Examines Exhibitionary Spaces in Postsocialist China

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Denton-Exhibiting-the-PastIn Exhibiting the Past: Historical Memory and the Politics of Museums in Postsocialist China, Kirk Denton analyzes types of museums and exhibitionary spaces: from revolutionary history museums, military museums, and memorials to martyrs to museums dedicated to literature, ethnic minorities, and local history. He discusses red tourism—a state sponsored program developed in 2003 as a new form of patriotic education designed to make revolutionary history come alive—and urban planning exhibition halls, which project utopian visions of China’s future that are rooted in new conceptions of the past. Denton’s method is narratological in the sense that he analyzes the stories museums tell about the past and the political and ideological implications of those stories.

Focusing on “official” exhibitionary culture rather than alternative or counter memory, Denton reinserts the state back into the discussion of postsocialist culture because of its centrality to that culture and to show that state discourse in China is neither monolithic nor unchanging. The book considers the variety of ways state museums are responding to the dramatic social, technological, and cultural changes China has experienced over the past three decades.

Profile of Jazz Artist Gabe Baltazar Airs on Voice of America

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The Paul Togawa Quartet, circa late 1950s.
The Paul Togawa Quartet, circa late 1950s. L to R: Gabe Baltazar, Paul Togawa, Dick Johnston, Buddy Woodson.

Broadcast journalist Heidi Chang‘s story on Gabe Baltazar Jr. as a pioneering Asian American jazz musician aired internationally on Voice of America. The show is archived on the VOA website; click here to read and listen (and comment!). It reveals just a sampling of what is in Gabe’s autobiography, If It Swings, It’s Music.

Beyond Ainu Studies: Changing Academic and Public Perspectives

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Hudson-BeyondAinuStudiesIn 2008, 140 years after it had annexed Ainu lands, the Japanese government shocked observers by finally recognizing Ainu as an Indigenous people. In this moment of unparalleled political change, it was Uzawa Kanako, a young Ainu activist, who signalled the necessity of moving beyond the historical legacy of “Ainu studies.” Mired in a colonial mindset of abject academic practices, Ainu Studies was an umbrella term for an approach that claimed scientific authority vis-à-vis Ainu, who became its research objects. As a result of this legacy, a latent sense of suspicion still hangs over the purposes and intentions of non-Ainu researchers.

This major new volume seeks to re-address the role of academic scholarship in Ainu social, cultural, and political affairs. Placing Ainu firmly into current debates over Indigeneity, Beyond Ainu Studies provides a broad yet critical overview of the history and current status of Ainu research.

Gender and Law in the Japanese Imperium

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Gender and Law in the Japanese ImperiumArguing against the popular stereotype of Japan as a non-litigious society, an international group of contributors from Japan, Taiwan, Germany, and the U.S. explores how in Japan and its colonies, as elsewhere in the modern world, law became a fundamental means of creating and regulating gendered subjects and social norms in the period from the 1870s to the 1950s. In Gender and Law in the Japanese Imperium, the authors suggest that legal discourse was subject to negotiation, interpretation, and contestation at every level of their formulation and deployment.

With this as a shared starting point, they explore key issues such reproductive and human rights, sexuality, prostitution, gender and criminality, and the formation of the modern conceptions of family and conjugality, and use these issues to complicate our understanding of the impact of civil, criminal, and administrative laws upon the lives of both Japanese citizens and colonial subjects. The result is a powerful rethinking of not only gender and law, but also the relationships between the state and civil society, the metropole and the colonies, and Japan and the West.

Japanese Government Honors Dr. George Tanabe with Imperial Order of the Rising Sun

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Dr. George Tanabe (left) accepts the commendation from Consul General Toyoei Shigeeda.
Dr. George Tanabe (left, wearing medal) accepts the commendation from Consul General Toyoei Shigeeda.

On January 24 at a ceremony at the Honolulu Consulate General of Japan, University of Hawai‘i professor emeritus George J. Tanabe, Jr. was conferred with the Government of Japan’s Imperial Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, in honor of his contributions toward the strengthening of academic and cultural exchanges between the United States and Japan. The award recognizes his work in promoting Japanese culture and values through research and studies in Japanese religions.

Dr. Tanabe joined the faculty of the Department of Religion at UH Mānoa in 1977 and served as department chair from 1991 to 2001. Among his titles published by UH Press are Japanese Buddhist Temples in Hawai‘i: An Illustrated Guide, which he wrote and researched with his wife Dr. Willa Tanabe, and Practically Religious: Worldly Benefits and the Common Religion of Japan, co-authored with Ian Reader. He is also general editor for the Topics in Contemporary Buddhism series.

For more information on Dr. Tanabe’s accomplishments, read the announcement on the award issued by the Consulate General.

Celebrating the Enduring Legacies of Queen Lili‘uokalani

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Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's QueenOn Sunday, January 26, at 3:30 p.m., UH Mānoa’s Hamilton Library will host “He Lei, He Aloha: This is a Lei of Love, The Legacies of Queen Lili‘uokalani,” a free program that celebrates the enduring legacies of Queen Lili‘uokalani, the last reigning monarch of the kingdom of Hawai‘i. The participatory program, which is presented by the Hawaiʻi State Public Library System, will be narrated by Meleanna Aluli Meyer, artist, educator, filmmaker, and descendant of Emma Nawahi, confidante of the Queen.

Part of the 45-minute program will feature readings from Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen, a new edition of which has just been published by Hui Hānai, an auxiliary organization to the Queen Lili‘uokalani Children’s Center. UH Press is honored to be distributing this enhanced and annotated edition and will have copies available for purchase at the event.

For more information, click here.

The Hermit’s Hut: Architecture and Asceticism in India

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Ashraf-Hermit'sHutAlthough architecture continually responds to ascetic compulsions, as in its frequent encounter with the question of excess and less, it is typically considered separate from asceticism. In contrast, The Hermit’s Hut offers original insight and explores the rich and mutual ways in which asceticism and architecture are played out in each other’s practices. Relying primarily on Buddhist materials, author Kazi K. Ashraf provides a complex narrative that stems from the simple structure of the hermit’s hut, showing how the significance of the hut resonates widely and how the question of dwelling is central to ascetic imagination. In exploring the conjunctions of architecture and asceticism, he breaks new ground by presenting ascetic practice as fundamentally an architectural project, namely the fabrication of a “last” hut.

This innovative book weaves together the fields of architecture, anthropology, religion, and philosophy to offer multidisciplinary and historical insights. It will appeal to readers with diverse interests and in a variety of disciplines—whether one is interested in the history of ascetic architecture in India, the concept of “home” in ancient India, or the theme of the body as building.

November 2013 | 240 pages | 105 illustrations
ISBN: 978-0-8248-3583-5 | $50.00 | Cloth

Spatial Habitus: Making and Meaning in Asia’s Architecture

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