About the Author

KRISTIANA KAHAKAUWILA, a native Hawaiian, was raised in Southern California. She earned a master's in fine arts from the University of Michigan and a bachelor's degree in comparative literature from Princeton University. She has worked as a writer and editor for Wine Spectator, Cigar Aficionado, and Highlights for Children magazines. She taught English at Chaminade University in Honolulu and is now an assistant professor of creative writing at Western Washington University.

Reviews

“Vividly imagined, beautifully written, at times almost unbearably suspenseful—the stories in Kristiana Kahakauwila’s debut collection, This Is Paradise, are boldly inventive in their exploration of the tenuous nature of human relations. These are poignant stories of ‘paradise’—Hawai'i—with all that ‘paradise’ entails of the transience of sensuous beauty.”—Joyce Carol Oates

“This is Paradise gives us a raw view of local color in all of its perplexities and pleasures. . . . [The stories] give us a picture of island life quite disturbing at the heart of things—the other side of paradise.”—Alan Cheuse, All Things Considered

“Gritty, haunting, and suspenseful. This is Paradise navigates an ocean of tension between tourists and islanders in paradisiacal, paradoxical Hawai'i.”—O, The Oprah Magazine

“[A] sparkling debut story collection. . . . A writer with one foot in the native Hawaiian community and the other in the mainland mainstream gives us an edgy, unmistakably authentic glimpse of the harder side of island life.”—ELLE

“Excellent . . . Accomplished. This Is Paradise [is] a collection from gifted newcomer Kristiana Kahakauwila.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Filled with an energy and outrage reminiscent of Jamaica Kincaid.”—Publishers Weekly

“One can almost smell the tropics emanating from each page, thanks to Kahakauwila’s startling and vivid imagery. With prose like a riptide, This Is Paradise is the perfect way to mentally transport you to Hawai'i from the comfort of home.”—BookPage

“Reminiscent of Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s similarly gritty, no-holds-barred view of life in Hawaii, she is a fresh new voice to be watched.”—Library Journal

“Finely wrought work from an impressive new talent. Tourists don’t see the Hawai'i unsparingly yet lyrically depicted in Kahakauwila’s debut collection.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Cogent explorations of regret, remorse, ambition, and ambivalence can take place anywhere on earth, but in a land known for its beguiling enchantment, such fatalism takes on a forbidding, even sinister, mien as Kahakauwila deconstructs the aloha myth.”—Booklist

“[Kristiana Kahakauwila] protagonists are as richly distinctive as the pidgin they speak, and yet each struggles profoundly with identity—that negotiation between ourselves and the world, which is at once Hawaiian, American, universally and compellingly human.”—Peter Ho Davies

“In these lively, accomplished stories, Kristiana Kahakauwila paints a vivid portrait of modern Hawai'i—not the gauzy ideal of tourist vacations, but the messy, fascinating reality of its inhabitants. This is a impressive debut by a writer to watch.”—Alix Ohlin

“Glowing with life, peril, and beautifully scaled human drama, This Is Paradise is full of people you'll never forget, and will never want to.”—Michael Byers