Kavai Strong Washburn

Just having to live in a place that in many times can feel very aggressively, you know, a place that can feel very inhospitable, that very much sometimes feels like it doesn't value the lives of African Americans.

So the poetry collection revolves around a lot of those themes.

a fantastic collection.

Danez Smith is an incredible poet.

So there were a lot of things and some of those things sort of came out organically over the course of the revisions.

I certainly wanted to talk about the experiences I've had having grown up in Hawaii and then having left and lived in different parts of the continental United States.

Some of the things that I experienced going from the islands to different parts of the states and sort of experiencing the disconnect that I felt as a result and the ways in which I saw Hawaii.

these stark contrasts between life in the islands and life in the states that I've lived in since.

So I certainly wanted to talk about that experience at some level.

And also as a result of those experiences, there were a lot of things about the way the majority of Americans I was encountering, the way they viewed the islands in Hawaii.

And I wanted to write something that

gave a different perspective on the islands that showed people the sort of community and people that I grew up with in Honoka'a.

So those were a few of the major things at the start that I think I was working through.

And then there was also the desire to express the culture of the islands and the parts that I have always loved and have found even more valuable as I've gotten farther away from them.

And some of those things include hula and the mythology and legends of the islands and

you know, the ways in which the many different ethnic groups that have lived there have all sort of mixed together some of their different customs and legends and even slang in a way that makes for this very rich and specific experience in Hawaii.

And I think that's something else that a lot of people aren't familiar with.

So I wanted to talk about all those things and also, you know, just tell a story that would be the kind of story I would want to read about a family that's struggling with

with economic issues, but is also just struggling with the internal issues that happen within any family, you know, sibling rivalry and unmet expectations and the pressures of being depended on by different people in your family.

So I just sort of all of those different themes working together is really where the novel started to find its footing and what I wanted to talk about.