Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Into the island literary scene steps a new book, courtesy of your state and federal governments. Local writers
are heard through
‘Quietest Singing’Cynthia Oi
Star-Bulletin"The Quietest Singing" is a collection of stories, poetry and a play, written by recipients of the Hawai'i Award for Literature.
Most of the works are original and all reflect the anthology's purpose of giving voice to those who are seldom heard, said Estelle Enoki of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. The SFCA steered the project with money from the state and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
"The Quietest Singing,"
$18, 228 pages, State Foundation on Culture and the Arts (distributed by University of Hawaii Press)
The NEA grant obliges that the anthology address "underserved communities," which has a broad definition, said Enoki, who edited the book along with Darrell H.Y. Lum and Joseph Stanton, both of whom have won the Hawaii award and the Cades Award.
A work might tell the experiences of Hawaii's rural communities and lifestyles, she said, of people who are politically and economically disadvantaged or of those who are denied opportunities to which most others have access.
Among the contributing writers are Ian MacMillan, Cathy Song, Rubellite Kawena Johnson, W.S. Merwin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Milton Murayama, Marjorie Sinclair and Leialoha Apo Perkins.
The anthology also contains commentary by the writers of others' work, which Enoki said amplifies each piece and lends insight to the creative perspective.
The small run of 2,000 has been distributed to schools, state libraries and literary arts programs and to local bookstores.
The project took three years to complete; total production cost was about $30,000, Enoki said. Writers were paid $1,000 for an original piece, $500 for a re-published one.
Click for online
calendars and events.
