Kristiana Kahakauwila

Contact:
kkahakau@hawaii.edu

Associate Professor Kristiana Kahakauwila is a hapa writer of Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian), German and Norwegian descent. She earned a BA in Comparative Literature from Princeton University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. Prior to teaching she worked as a magazine editor at Highlights for Children and Wine Spectator. Since then, she has taught at Chaminade University, Western Washington University, and the Low-Residency MFA at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe. Her first book, This is Paradise: Stories (Hogarth 2013), takes as its heart the people and landscapes of contemporary Hawai'i and was named a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. Her second book, Clairboyance (HarperCollins 2024), is a novel for middle grade readers. She is currently at work on a multigenerational novel set on the island of Maui.

Professor Kahakauwila teaches across the department's creative writing curriculum, including graduate courses such as 625 (Foundations in Creative Writing), 613 (Graduate Fiction Workshop), 713 (Seminar in Fiction), and 716 (Seminar in Techniques in Contemporary Literature) as well as undergraduate courses such as 273 (Introduction to Literature), 313 (Types to Creative Writing), 413 (Fiction Form & Theory), 414 (Fiction Workshop), and 416 (Special Topics in Creative Writing).

Publications


Books

  • Clairboyance, May 2024
  • This is Paradise: Stories, Hogarth/Penguin Random House, July 2013 (2nd Ed., 2018)

Sample of Short Fiction

  • "The Summer Island," Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures, edited by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, Leora Kava, and Craig Santos Perez. U of Hawaiʻi Press, August 2022.
  • “Bridge Jumping,”Kīpuka: Finding Refuge in Times of Change (Bamboo Ridge, Journal of Hawai‘i Literature and Arts), Issue #119, edited by Donald Carreira Ching, Meredith Desha Enos, Brenda Kwon, and Misty-Lynn Sanico. Bamboo Ridge Press, 2021.

Sample of Creative Nonfiction

  • “Stranger Danger” and “Brown Baby,” Nonwhite & Woman: 153 Micro Essays on Being in the World, edited by Darien Hsu Gee and Carla Crudijo. Woodhall Press, Aug. 2022.
  • “Marked,” Hunger Mountain, Issue #24, Spring 2020.

Areas of Interest


creative writing and craft theory, fiction writing, creative nonfiction writing, journalism, travel writing, Oceanic/Pacific literature, literatures of Hawai'i, contemporary Native American literature

Awards


  • 2018 Lannan Foundation Writer-in-Residence, Institute of American Indian Arts
  • 2015-16 Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study Fellow
  • 2014 Marjorie Putnam Sinclair Edel 2014 Honoree, University of Hawai`i
  • 2014 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing Shortlist, Stanford University
  • 2013 Jane Tinkham Broughton Fellow in Fiction, Bread Loaf Writers Conference
  • 2013 Barnes & Noble Discover New Writer Award Finalist

Education


  • MFA in Creative Writing, University of Michigan Ann Arbor
  • BA in Comparative Literature & Certificate in Creative Writing, Princeton University

Courses


Spring Semester 2025
  • ENG-416: Studies: Creative Writing
Fall Semester 2025
  • ENG-713: Seminar in Creative Writing
Fall Semester 2024
  • ENG-413: Form and Theory of Fiction
  • ENG-625D: Foundatns of Creative Writing
Spring Semester 2024
  • ENG-716B: Techniques in Fiction: Techniques and Debates of the Fourth Wave
Fall Semester 2023
  • ENG-313: Types of Creative Writing
  • ENG-413: Form and Theory of Fiction