kuualoha hoomanawanui is a

Native Hawaiian Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians; , , , and ) are the Indigenous peoples of Oceania, Indigenous Polynesians, Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiʻi was set ...

author who is known for her scholarship on Pele.

Early life and education

Born in

Kailua Kailua () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Honolulu County, Hawaii, United States. It lies in the Koolaupoko District of the island of Oahu on the windward coast at Kailua Bay. It is in the judicial district and the ahupua'a named Ko'ol ...

Oʻahu Oahu (, , sometimes written Oahu) is the third-largest and most populated island of the Hawaiian Islands and of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital, Honolulu, is on Oahu's southeast coast. The island of Oahu and the uninhabited Northwe ...

, hoʻomanawanui also spent part of her childhood on

Kauaʻi Kauai (), anglicized as Kauai ( or ), is one of the main Hawaiian Islands. It has an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), making it the fourth-largest of the islands and the 21st-largest island in the United States. Kauai lies 73 mi ...

at Wailua Homesteads. Attending the

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Hawaiʻi system and houses the main offic ...

as an undergraduate, hoʻomanawanui earned her B.A. in Hawaiian Studies, an M.A. in Polynesian Religion, and PhD in English literature at the university. While in graduate school, hoʻomanawanui was a founding editor of ''ʻŌiwi: A Native Hawaiian Journal''. She became the chief editor after the passing of

Mahealani Dudoit Darlaine Māhealani MuiLan Dudoit (1954 – August 28, 2002) was a Hawaiian poet, essayist and editor. Her work appeared in the literary journals ''Manoa'', the '' Hawaii Review'', and '' The Southwest Review'', as well as the anthologies ''Sist ...

Career

hoʻomanawanui has been a full professor with the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa since 2007, teaching Native Hawaiian literature and Pacific (Oceanic) literature. Her focus is on

moʻolelo Moʻolelo are the narrative stories of the Native Hawaiian people. These fiction and nonfiction narratives were exclusively oral at first, but began to be disseminated through writing in the 1800s after the development of the written Hawaiian lang ...

, especially the legends of the Hawaiian goddess Pele. hoʻomanawanui is the first Native Hawaiian with a tenure track position in the Department of English at the University of Hawaiʻi. Her work received an honorable mention for the

Modern Language Association The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "str ...

Prize for Studies in Native American Literatures, Cultures, and Languages.

Bibliography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:hoʻomanawanui, kuʻualoha Native Hawaiian writers University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa faculty 21st-century indigenous writers of the Americas 20th-century American women writers American women academics Native Hawaiian academics