UH Press receives top honors in Hawai'i book awards

Kalaupapa: A Collective Memory

On Friday, May 10, the Hawai‘i Book Publishers Association announced the winners of the 2013 Ka Palapala Po‘okela book awards at a celebration at the Hawai‘i State Library.

University of Hawai‘i Press titles were recognized with seven of the twenty awards, including the top Samuel M. Kamakau Award for Hawai‘i Book of the Year, which was bestowed on Kalaupapa: A Collective Memory, by Anwei Skinsnes Law with design by Julie Matsuo-Chun, one of the UH Press production staff.

In addition, the book tied as the winner of the Award of Excellence in the Hawaiian Language, Culture and History category and received an honorable mention in Nonfiction. Published with the support of the Native Hawaiian Center of Excellence at UH Mānoa’s John A. Burns School of Medicine, the comprehensive work uses primary sources such as letters, petitions, and oral history interviews to document the lives of individuals sent to the leprosy settlement at Kalaupapa. The judges praised the volume as “a very important contribution to Hawaiian history” and recognized Anwei Law for “an exemplary job constructing an insightful narrative from these sources into a book that is beautifully realized by UH Press.”

Warm accolades also went to these UH Press titles and their authors:

Ancestry of Experience: A Journey into Hawaiian Ways of Knowing, by Leilani Holmes — Winner (tie) of the Award of Excellence in Hawaiian Language, Culture & History

I Respectfully Dissent: A Biography of Edward H. Nakamura, by Tom Coffman — Winner of the Award of Excellence in Nonfiction

Loulu: The Hawaiian Palm, by Donald R. Hodel — Winner of the Award of Excellence in Natural Science

The ‘Ukulele: A History, by Jim Tranquada and John King — Winner of the Award of Excellence in Special-Interest Books

See this post for the list of all UH Press nominees; read the Hawaiʻi Book Blog post on the event for complete results; and view photos on the HBPA website.

For more information, visit: http://uhpress.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/uh-press-titles-honored-at-2013-ka-