Author Spotlight: Lois Ann Yamanaka

Born in Hoʻolehua, Hawaiʻi on the island of Molokaʻi, the writings of Lois-Ann Yamanaka focus on the lives of young, working-class Asian Americans in Hawaiʻi. This award-winning and locally celebrated author began writing poetry in 1983 after being inspired by the honesty of her own English/Literature Arts students when creating their own poetry. Yamanaka's first book, Saturday Night at the Pahala Theater, came out that same year noted as being  both witty and street-smart. Below are a selection of Yamanaka's work in our collection that we hope you will enjoy:

Yamanaka, Lois-Ann. (1993). Saturday night at the Pahala Theater. Bamboo Ridge Press.

"Poetry. Fiction. Asian American Studies. This is a work of fiction during which the characters interact in the form of poetic novellas." -- from publisher

Yamanaka, Lois-Ann. (1997). Blu's hanging. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. 

"On the Hawaiian island of Molokai, life goes on for the three young Ogata children after the death of their mother and subsequent emotional withdrawal of their grief and guilt-stricken "Poppy". The eldest at 13, Ivah is now responsible for the safety and well-being of tiny Maisie, vulnerable and mute since their mother's passing; and for Blu, her uncontainable brother whose desperate need for love has made him vulnerable to the most insidious of relationships." --from publisher

Yamanaka, Lois-Ann. (1997). Wild meat and the bully burgers. Harcourt Brace & Company.

"Her name is Lovey Nariyoshi, and her Hawaii is not the one of leis, pineapple, and Magnum P.I. In the blue collar town of Hilo, on the Big Island, Lovey and her eccentric Japanese-American family are at the margins of poverty, in the midst of tropical paradise... At once a bitingly funny satire of haole happiness and a moving meditation on what is real, if ugly at times, but true..."  -- from publisher

Yamanaka, Lois-Ann. (1999). Heads by Harry. Farrar, Straus, Giroux.

"You can always count on a crowd outside Heads by Harry, the Yagyuu family's taxidermy shop in Hilo, where the regulars gather every day to drink beer, eat smoked meat, and pontificate into the pau hana hours. But above the shop, where the family lives, life isn't so predictable. Toni Yagyuu, the middle child, has enough on her hands dealing with her budding diva of a little sister. But it is the men in her life that really have her running in circles: a flamboyant older brother who wants to be a hairdresser, a stubborn father who refuses to accept her into the family business, and the Santos brothers -- two pig hunting, ex-high school football players who don't know what to think of their headstrong, outspoken neighbor." -- from publisher

Visit www.yamanakanaau.com for more information.