Category: Autobiography & Biography

October 2016 UH Press Author Events

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Several University of Hawai‘i Press authors will be presenting their works this month and next. These events are free and the public is invited to attend. Books will be available for sale and signing, unless otherwise noted.

brownenglishdept-flyerTuesday, October 4, 3:00 to 4:30 pm, Kuykendall Hall 410, UH Mānoa
Assistant professor of religion Marie Alohalani Brown discusses life-writing and her recent book, Facing the Spears of Change: The Life and Legacy of John Papa ‘Ī‘ī. Her talk is part of the UHM English Department Colloquium series.

Thursday, October 6, noon to 1:15 pm, Henke Hall 325, UH Mānoamorales-forasong_100dpi
At this Center for Biographical Research brown bag talk, Rodney Morales  addresses the role that research plays in his fiction, particularly his new novel, For a Song. In fabricating stories that ring true, he not only focuses on documentable events, actual persons, and observable landscapes, as histories and biographies do, but also finds ways to breathe life into them. (See the fall semester Brown Bag Biography schedule here.)

hasinger-astro_basicallybksFriday, October 7, 6:00 to 7:00 pm, Basically Books, Hilo
For this First Friday event in downtown Hilo, UHM Institute for Astronomy director Günther Hasinger expands our understanding of space and time and looks at recent advances in astrophysics, as covered in his book, Astronomy’s Limitless Journey: A Guide to Understanding the Universe.

Wednesday, October 12, 6:30 to 7:30 pm, Kapolei Public Library
baird-dolphinswhales_100dpiMarine biologist Robin W. Baird of Cascadia Research Collective (Olympia, Washington) discusses results from his soon-to-be-published The Lives of Hawai‘i’s Dolphins and Whales: Natural History and Conservation, which includes findings from years of research using satellite tagging, genetics, and photo identification to study resident whales and dolphins in Hawai‘i. (Note: Books will not be available for sale.)

Thursday, October 13, 7:30 to 8:30 pm, Kapi‘olani Community College Hale ‘Ōhi‘a (cafeteria)
Hawaiian Historical Society hosts Marie Alohalani Brown as their program’s featured speaker to present her biography of John brown-facingthespears_100dpiPapa ‘Ī‘ī, Facing the Spears of Change. Doors open at 7 pm for light refreshments and the talk follows at 7:30.

Saturday, October 22, 9:00 to 11:00 am, Wahiawa Botanical Garden KawakamiCOVER12b.indd
The Wahiawa Historical Society honors former longtime resident Barbara Kawakami on the publication of Picture Bride Stories.

Wednesday, October 26, 5:30 to 7:30 pm, King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center, 417 S. King Street
Dr. Marie Alohalani Brown again shares her work and insight on Hawaiian statesman John Papa ‘Ī‘ī; this time to a downtown Honolulu audience. See more details and register on Eventbrite.
Events to come in November include Rodney Morales at Native Books/Nā Mea Hawai‘i on November 5, 2:30 to 4 pm, and discussions with editors Aya Kimura and Krisnawati Suryanata, along with chapter contributors, to highlight Food and Power in Hawai‘i. A book launch for Food and Power in Hawai‘i is scheduled for November 4, 2:30 to 4:00 pm at UHM Saunders Hall 443. Check our Facebook page for updates.

James Dooley’s Sunny Skies, Shady Characters Triggers Memories and Discussion

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NEW RELEASE | AUTHOR EVENTS (see updates below)

DooleyCOVERC.inddSunny Skies, Shady Characters: Cops, Killers, and Corruption in the Aloha State
by James Dooley

A Latitude 20 Book | August 2015 | 248 pages | 20 b&w illlus.
Paper | ISBN 978-0-8248-5164-4 | $18.99
(Also available as an ebook/Kindle)

“Sunny Skies, Shady Characters by James Dooley—Hawaii’s bravest investigative reporter—recounts the secret history of Hawaii that all of us have been waiting for: a book of shocking revelations, featuring a cast of thieves, heavies, enforcers, and yakuza thugs and sneaks who have so intimidated the islands that the truth of their villainy has been suppressed—until now. At last, we know where the bodies are buried, and who buried them.” —Paul Theroux

“The stories recounted here were once front-page news and they lose none of their timeliness in the translation into a book. For those who lived through those times, the book is an opportunity to recall the scandals and scoundrels that infested Hawai‘i, and for those too young to remember, it is a reminder of why a vigilant press is an essential ingredient to an informed public.” —Gerald Kato, associate professor of journalism, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Veteran investigative reporter James Dooley revisits highlights of his journalistic career in Sunny Skies, Shady Characters, revealing entertaining backstories on how he chased high-profile scandals of crime and corruption from the 1970s into the 2000s. In the process, he provides an insider’s look at the business of journalism and the craft of investigative reporting. For a glimpse at the people and cases he covers, take a look at the book’s index here.

Although warehouse stock has only just arrived in Hawai‘i, the book has already triggered memories and discussion due to early media attention, especially preview excerpts that appeared in the August issue of HONOLULU Magazine (released in late July). Civil Beat columnist Neal Milner wrote last week, “As Dooley shows, some of the corruption in Hawaii, like [Ronnie] Ching himself, was bloody and sinister, involving the Mob, Yakuza, and pitched battles between rival Teamster Union members. Other scandals like the Bishop Estate and Kukui Plaza affairs, may not have involved violence, but in their own way they were as outrageous, crude and blatant as a Mafia hit.” David Shapiro’s book review in Sunday’s Honolulu Star-Advertiser stated, “his greatest hits were darned impressive, and it’ll likely be enough for Sunny Skies, Shady Characters to join the short list of books considered must-reads for those seeking to understand Hawaii.”

EVENTS (most recent listed at the bottom)
• Author James Dooley will give a Center for Biographical Research brown bag talk on Thursday, September 3, noon to 1:15 p.m., in UHM Henke Hall 325.
• Join us for HONOLULU Magazine‘s downtown pau hana talk and book signing on Wednesday, September 16, from 5 to 7 p.m., at the Hukilau restaurant (1088 Bishop Street). Click here for the e-invite.
• On Saturday, October 3, starting at 12 noon, Dooley will sign at Barnes & Noble, Ala Moana Center, following an appearance at the Perry and Price Saturday Morning Show broadcast live from Jade Dynasty restaurant, also at Ala Moana Center.
• Head over to the windward side of O‘ahu on Saturday, October 10, noon to 1 p.m., for a signing at BookEnds in Kailua (Kailua Shopping Center, 600 Kailua Road).
• On Saturday, November 7, Jim Dooley will be one of a dozen authors signing at the Daughters of Hawai‘i’s annual Book Day at Queen Emma. (Another veteran journalist, Denby Fawcett, will be there to sign her book, Secrets of Diamond Head.)
• Dooley joins two other authors (Kusuma Cooray and Leslie Hayashi) at the UH Manoa Bookstore‘s Preview Night, Thursday, November 19, 5 to 7 p.m.
• UH Press is partnering with University of Hawai‘i at Manoa’s Hamilton Library in hosting a new lecture series, Laha Mau Book Talks. Jim Dooley will present the second in the series on Thursday, December 9, starting at 4 p.m. in room 301.

For further details, please check back on this post or contact Carol Abe in the UH Press marketing department.

MEDIA (see also the above links)
• Political analyst Dan Boylan gives high praise to the book in his October 7 MidWeek column. See page 10 of the print replica edition.
• On Thursday, October 8, Jim Dooley was on HPR2’s “Town Square” guest-hosted by Neal Milner. The show aired live at 5 p.m. HST and is now archived for later listening.
• Click the highlighted text to listen to the interview by Chris Vandercook on the August 25 “The Conversation” show on HPR2 and the hourlong discussion on the August 23 Carroll Cox radio show.

UHP in Berkeley, CA | Bay Area Book Festival

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BABFlogowithChronLogoBay Area Book Festival

Indoor/Outdoor Free Festival

June 6-7 | Downtown Berkeley’s Art District, CA
Find more information here.
———–
Drop by our booth for a great discount on some of our most popular titles!

The Blind WriterCall me Captain Marathon Japan Changing Chinese Cities
216 pages
Paper | 978-0-8248-4798-2 | $25.00
Cloth | 978-0-8248-3958-1 | $50.00
Sameer Pandya will be a presenter at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference on Monday, June 8. For more info, click here.

Call Me Captain: A Memoir of a Woman at Sea
Susan Scott

336 pages
Paper | 978-0-8248-3981-9 | $19.99

Marathon Japan: Distance Racing and Civic Culture
Thomas R. H. Havens

240 pages
Cloth | 978-0-8248-4101-0 | $47.00

Changing Chinese Cities: The Potentials of Field Urbanism
Renee Y. Chow

224 pages
Cloth | 978-0-8248-5383-9 | $45.00

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.

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.

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 Making of the First Korean President

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Lew-Making1stKoreanPresThe only full-scale history of Syngman Rhee’s early career in English was published nearly six decades ago. Now, Young Ick Lew uncovers little-known aspects of Rhee’s leadership roles prior to 1948, when he became the Republic of Korea’s first president. In The Making of the First Korean President: Syngman Rhee’s Quest for Independence, 1875–1948, Lew delves into Rhee’s background, investigates his abortive diplomatic missions, and explains how and why he was impeached as the head of the Korean Provisional Government in 1925. He analyzes the numerous personal conflicts between Rhee and other prominent Korean leaders, including some close friends and supporters who eventually denounced him as an autocrat.

Based on exhaustive research that incorporates archival records as well as secondary sources in Korean, English, and Japanese, The Making of the First Korean President meticulously lays out the key developments of Rhee’s pre-presidential career. This richly illustrated volume is essential reading for anyone with an interest in modern Korean history and will serve as a lasting portrait of one of the pivotal figures in the evolution of Korea as it journeyed from colonial suppression to freedom and security.

November 2013 | ISBN: 978-0-8248-3168-4 | $68.00 | Cloth

NPR Highlights Jazz Musician Gabe Baltazar Jr.

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Baltazar-If It Swings, It's Music

On September 28, National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition Saturday will broadcast journalist Heidi Chang‘s profile of Gabe Baltazar Jr. as a pioneering Asian American jazz artist. The piece draws from his UH Press book, If It Swings, It’s Music, and features in-person interviews with the legendary saxophonist and coauthor Theo Garneau, along with some of Baltazar’s musical highlights.

Weekend Edition Saturday is a two-hour program hosted by NPR’s Peabody Award-winning Scott Simon. Please check your local NPR-affiliate listings for air times. For those in Hawai‘i, the Weekend Edition show will be on HPR-2, starting at 5 a.m. HST (O‘ahu listeners can tune in to KIPO 89.3).

UPDATE: The story is archived on the NPR site for listening and viewing. Click here.

To hear more from Gabe, Hawai‘i Public Radio‘s The Conversation aired an interview by Chris Vandercook in August last year.

For a sultry treat, listen to Gabe’s performance of Santana’s “Europa” at the Hawai‘i State Art Museum on July 22, 2012. . .when he was 82—fantastic!

An Anthropologist Returns to Papua New Guinea

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A Faraway, Familiar PlaceA Faraway, Familiar Place: An Anthropologist Returns to Papua New Guinea is for readers seeking an excursion deep into little-known terrain but allergic to the wide-eyed superficiality of ordinary travel literature. Author Michael French Smith savors the sometimes gritty romance of his travels to an island village far from roads, electricity, telephone service, and the Internet, but puts to rest the cliché of “Stone Age” Papua New Guinea. He also gives the lie to stereotypes of anthropologists as either machete-wielding swashbucklers or detached observers turning real people into abstractions. Smith uses his anthropological expertise subtly, to illuminate Papua New Guinean lives, to nudge readers to look more closely at ideas they take for granted, and to take a wry look at his own experiences as an anthropologist.

“Michael French Smith has written an engaging and accessible account of returning to the site of his longterm field research, Kragur Island in the Sepik area of Papua New Guinea. As he has done before in two earlier books (of which A Faraway Place is a worthy companion), Mike has spun a great yarn. He possesses the admirable ability to translate personal experiences meaningfully and explains complex social phenomena in ways that the anthropologically uninitiated will understand and appreciate. He relates experiences that most anthropologists have had, but that others—students, social developers, those curious about the region—need to hear about. . . . There is nothing quite like it on the market.” —Richard Scaglion, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh

July 2013 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3686-3 / $52.00 (CLOTH)

An American Girl in the Hawaiian Islands Earns AAUP Outstanding Rating

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Each year the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) compiles its University Press Books for Public and Secondary Schools Libraries, a bibliography of titles submitted by member presses as a tool for collection development. The books are rated by committees of public and secondary-school librarians from two divisions of the American Library Association.

An American Girl in the Hawaiian IslandsIn this year’s collection, An American Girl in the Hawaiian Islands: Letters of Carrie Prudence Winter, 1890–1893, edited by Sandra Bonura and Deborah Day, received a top “Outstanding” rating. As defined by the selection process, Outstanding titles have “exceptional editorial content and subject matter. They are essential additions to most library collections.”

The reviewer’s comments below can be viewed at the end of the listing (sorted by Dewey Decimal class) of the 2013 Outstanding Titles.

The use of Carrie Prudence Winter’s original letters is what allows this book to become a rare primary source on topics such as: women missionaries, the last days of Hawaii’s monarchy, and a long-distance 19th century courtship. Ms. Winter’s use of language paints a compelling picture, engaging a reader’s imagination while they learn of a world few knew so intimately.”—Stacey Hayman (CODES/RUSA)

Besides being available online, the print bibliography was distributed last month at the American Library Association annual conference in Chicago. General information on the bibliography and rating system, as well as how to order copies, can be found here.

An American Girl in the Hawaiian Islands also was one of three finalists in the biography category of this year’s San Diego Book Awards.

Hawaii Public Radio Interviews Mark Panek, Elliot Cades Award for Literature Winner

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UH-Hilo professor Mark Panek was interviewed by Hawaii Public Radio’s Noe Tanigawa about being named this year’s winner of the Elliot Cades Award for Literature given to an “emerging writer.” The Hawaii Literary Arts Council primarily based their selection on his 2011 biography of Percy Kipapa, Big Happiness: The Life and Death of a Modern Hawaiian Warrior, which received the 2012 Ka Palapala Po‘okela award for nonfiction. The Cades awards will be officially presented at Mission Memorial Auditorium on Sunday, May 19, at 3:00 p.m., as part of the Hawai‘i Book & Music Festival and the public is invited.

The HPR interview will air tomorrow (Friday, May 17) at 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on KHPR 88.1 FM and on KIPO 88.9 FM at 12:30 or 1:30 p.m. (exact timing is subject to change). It will be archived on the HPR website or accessed at www.noetanigawa.com. UPDATE: Click here for the archived show.

Of related interest: Read a past Q&A on Big Happiness here.

In addition to Big Happiness, Dr. Panek also authored Gaijin Yokozuna: A Biography of Chad Rowan (UH Press, 2006) and this month released his first fiction title, Hawai‘i: A Novel, published by Lō‘ihi Press.

Congratulations, Mark!

Honolulu Events with Leilani Holmes on Ancestry of Experience

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San Diego resident Leilani Holmes, author of Ancestry of Experience: A Journey Into Hawaiian Ways of Knowing, will visit Honolulu this month and appear at two public events.

On Saturday, May 11, 4:00 to 5:30 p.m., at Native Books/Nā Mea Hawai‘i, she will speak on her search to reclaim her origins, as well as discoveries of wider interest on Hawaiian identity and ancestry. Light refreshments will be provided at the free presentation. (She will start with a bit of hula, so come early!)Holmes-Ancestry_NativeBks

Leilani will also participate as one of the almost 200 presenters at the Hawai‘i Book & Music Festival, May 18-19, at the Frank F. Fasi Civic Grounds next to Honolulu Hale. On Saturday, May 18, she has two timeslots: At 12 noon, she will be a panelist at the Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities tent pavilion; at 4:00 p.m., she will be the solo presenter at the Alana Hawaiian Culture pavilion.

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