The Hawaiʻi Book Publishers Association announced the winners of the Hawaiʻi Book Publishers Association 2013 Ka Palapala Poʻokela book awards on Friday, May 10. University of Hawaiʻi Press titles were recognized with 7 of the 20 awards, including the top Samuel M. Kamakau Award for Hawaiʻi Book of the Year for Kalaupapa: A Collective Memory by Anwei Skinsnes Law with design by UH Press Production Editor Julie Matsuo-Chun.
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.”
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 and 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 ʻUkulele: A History by Jim Tranquada and John King—Winner of the Award of Excellence in Special-Interest Books
Read more about other UH Press nominees.
