Hookupu: An Offering of Literature by Native Hawaiian Women

Ho‘okupu: An Offering of Literature by Native Hawaiian Women is the first commercially-published anthology to collect and present the writings of contemporary Native Hawaiian women. It combines the best of the submissions and showcases works in several genres.

Here, na wahine o ke kai (the women of the sea) “plunge their paddles as one” into the sea of story and song (to use a metaphor from Jackie Pualani Johnson’s poem “I Mua e Na Wahine.”)

This book is structured as a ho‘okupu, wrapped in the beginning with a mele by Pualani Kanaka‘ole Kanahele and at the end with a mele by Nalanikanaka‘ole. (These authors are sisters, as well as kumu hula of Halau o Kekuhi.) Within it you will find chants, mele, poems, short stories, biographical accounts, and a play. The pieces are written primarily in English. The writers are women of various ages and backgrounds, living on O‘ahu, Moloka‘i, Hawai‘i, and in the continental U.S.

Compiled and edited by: Miyoko Sugano and Jackie Pualani Johnson