Marjorie Sinclair
reads from her works

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By Jason Genegabus
jason@starbulletin.com

It's been more than 65 years since Marjorie Sinclair arrived in Honolulu after graduating from Mills College in California. Upon her arrival and enrollment as a graduate student at the University of Hawai'i, she discovered a new passion: "I just very much wanted to write about the Hawaiian people," she said.

Sinclair went on to do just that, writing a pair of novels ("Kona" in 1947 and "The Wild Wind" in 1950) and a biography ("Nahi'ena'ena: Sacred Daughter of Hawaii," in 1976), along with a number of poems and short stories that reflect the Native Hawaiian experience in the early 20th century.

Tonight, she is the featured author and guest of honor at a reading starting at 7:30 p.m. at the UH Center for Korean Studies Auditorium. While others will recite selections of her work, Sinclair will recite some previously unreleased material that she's been working on since her retirement in the early 1980s.

"My heart was devoted to Hawaii and still is," said Sinclair, as she relaxed at her Maunalani Heights home of the past 63 years. When asked how she got involved with Hawaiian culture, she replied, "It was very simple ... I was a student at UH and had some Native Hawaiian friends."

"They took me in," she said.

Her friendships with local students also helped provide perspective when she married then-school president Gregg Sinclair. After serving as his graduate assistant while a student, the two married, kicking off what Marjorie calls "a great period of travel, entertaining and interesting people ... and I loved that."

After her husband retired from the university in 1955, Sinclair saw a new opportunity. For the next 25 years she taught in the UH English department and worked with the Hawai'i Literary Arts Council. During these years, she also collaborated on a number of translations and was editor of "The Path of the Ocean: Traditional Poetry of Polynesia."

Since being named a recipient of the council's Hawai'i Writers Award in 1981, Sinclair has for the most part remained out of the public eye. While "Nahi'ena'ena" and her earlier works remained popular titles at home and abroad, Sinclair spent her time traveling with her second husband, author Leon Edel.

"I just gave myself over to his life, which was fascinating," said Sinclair. "In a sense, Paris was a second home. We went to Paris every other year if not every year."

Following Edel's passing in 1997, Sinclair began to cut back on her travels and started to write again. With a lifetime of experiences to draw upon, she sometimes gets an idea that won't go away.

"When you're a poet, your life enters into your poetry," Sinclair said. "My poems now are different. You begin to think more about the meaning of things that happened to you that move out beyond the normal daily experience.

"I get an idea, or a feeling, or an image; it stays in my mind, and lines begin to come ... you need to get it out."

When asked about tonight's reading, Sinclair is quick to brush aside any notion that it was her idea. "No, no -- I had nothing to do with it," she said. "I never dreamed that at the age of 88 I would give a poetry reading."

"I'm honored and flattered, because it's so improbable," said Sinclair. "I'm rather shocked."

'The Place Your Body Is' Where: Center for Korean Studies Auditorium, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 1881 East-West Road When: 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. today; a reception begins at 7 p.m. Admission: Free Call: UH Department of English, 956-7619, or Center for Biographical Research, 956-3774.

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