Bamboo Ridge
celebrates 20
Its founders will hold a
By Cynthia Oi
benefit bash to help fund the
local writers forum
Star-BulletinAS an infant, Lisa Lum crawled around a small Kalihi apartment and ate her father's words. Today, the University of Hawaii junior is looking for words of her own, taking a writing course from her dad's friend and colleague, author Lois-Ann Yamanaka.
Lisa's father is Darrell Lum, who along with Eric Chock, comprise the backbone of the organization called Bamboo Ridge Press. And as she is 20 years old, so is Bamboo Ridge.
"When we first started out, Eric and I we used to paste up the magazine in a small apartment and Lisa would be crawling around on the floor," Lum said. Columns of type printed on paper was scattered everywhere "and every once in awhile we'd look for a correction or something and she'd be eating the words."
He laughed at the memory as he recalled the late-night hours spent pasting up the budding magazine with rubber cement, stapling together the pages of stories and poetry to create a literary forum for island writers.
By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Marie Hara is a writer and associated with Bamboo Ridge.
Bamboo Ridge's longevity is directly attributable to Lum's and Chock's devotion, said writer Marie Hara, who volunteers her time to work on the magazine."No one who is working for the press is making a living," Hara said. "Darrell and Eric do all the editing, all the work to get Bamboo Ridge out. If they didn't have their other jobs, they wouldn't be able to do it."
Lum, an academic advisor at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa and himself a writer, knows that financial reality. He, Chock and Joy Kobayashi-Cintron are the press' only staffers and they pay themselves way under minimum wage to produce each issue.
Bamboo Ridge was founded in 1978 and publishes books as well as the literary magazine. The first 15 issues averaged about 65 pages. In 1982, when the editors realized that many of the contributing writers were also working on books, the press began publishing books. It has produced 23 books since then.
The press is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization, receiving money from the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and National Education Association. Like many groups that depend on government funding, Bamboo Ridge has found the well dry in recent years.
To raise funds, it will throw a benefit birthday party Sunday.
"I hope we make some money," Lum said, "But the primary thing in our minds was gotta have a party and have some fun to acknowledge that the magazine has lasted that long."
Twenty years of reading stories and poetry, editing them, designing and publishing a literary magazine hasn't been easy, Lum acknowledges. When asked why he keeps doing it, he quipped, "Stupid, that's why."
More seriously, he explained: "Sometimes when we're working, we look at each other and we ask 'Why the heck are we doing this?' But in the middle of an issue, when you are putting it together and you see how much good writing there is, you get re-energized, you get excited about the opportunity to show other people the good writing."
Hyperion Books for Children will publish Lois-Ann Yamanaka's "Name Me Nobody" next year. Award-winner Yamanaka
has new bookIt will be the fourth novel by Yamanaka, who has won critical acclaim for her other books that include "Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers" and "Blu's Hanging."
Yamanaka said "Name Me Nobody" was written a few years ago, but was turned down for publication. However, an editor who had seen the novel later moved to the Hyperion publishing house and called the author for the book.
The story, aimed at adolescent readers, involves a 13-year-old named Emi-Lou who feels like a nobody. The only two people who make her feel like somebody are her grandmother and her best friend, Von, who displays homosexual tendencies.
Emi-Lou desperately wants to hold on to her friend, but feels their relationship may be in jeopardy.
The book is tentatively set for June publication, said Hyperion publicist Sharon Heede.
Bamboo Ridge's success, he said, is welded in the fact that "people recognized themselves in the literature we publish and, because of that, they want to support it and nurture it."
Indeed, Steve Hirashima, marketing officer at the University of Hawai'i Press, calls Bamboo Ridge an "indispensable" part of island publishing. "I think it's a fabulous organization that helps local writers to hone their craft. Bamboo Ridge helps them develop techniques, and along every step of the way to publishing."
But Bamboo Ridge's voices aren't limited to locals only, said Hara, an instructor at the University of Hawai'i whose book, "Bananaheart & Other Stories," was published by the press.
"Not all the stories are about grandmothers and fishing, which is some people's view of what Bamboo Ridge is," she said.
The press is very inclusive, she said, not limited to "ethnics."
"We have haole writers, as well as Asian-American writers," she said. But because Hawaii doesn't have a strong publishing presence, and mainland publishers aren't keen to island writers, "we focus on writers from Hawaii."
"Bamboo Ridge helps writers by accepting them on their own terms, as who they are. And also to give legitimacy to the Hawaii voice," she said.
Said Lum, "I think people here recognize that literature is part of their lives, that it isn't reserved for English professors or English teachers."
Many of Bamboo Ridge's books and writers have received literary recognition, but for Lum, the longevity of the press is the thing.
At 48, he says he and his colleagues are "just old futs now." But for two decades, the press has been "stumbling along."
There has been criticism, chiefly that Bamboo Ridge, organized to provide a different voice, has become "the establishment," Hara said.
But, said Lum, "Others have told us that we're on the right track. So I guess we've been doing the right thing."
Bamboo Ridge continues to encourage young writers and to operate with "no credos, no rules," said Hara.
Among the young ones may be Lum's daughter. He cannot deny that his passion may have infected Lisa. "When she said she was taking Lois-Ann's class, I tell her no do that. Try to go into something that will keep your parents in the lifestyle that want to get accustomed to."
Fund-raiser
What: Bamboo Ridge Birthday Bash
