Kahuamānoa Launches Tammie Oka's Book How To Be A Good Ojoosan

Kahuaomānoa Student Press is pleased to announce the launch of Tammie Oka’s debut work, How to be a Good Ojoosan, at the HIG Auditorium at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa campus on Sunday, January 27, 2008 from 6 to 8 p.m. After pupus (6:00-6:30 pm), Tammie Oka will read from her collection (6:30-7:30 pm), then close the event with a book signing (7:30-8 pm). The first fifty students showing their student IDs will receive complimentary copies of Tammie’s book sponsored by UH’s Student Activity Program and Fee Board (SAPFB).

Featuring poems challenging stereotypes of Japanese women and her own ascribed role in her family and society, Tammie Oka’s collection has been described as “powerful and adept” by one of Oka’s mentors, esteemed poet Robert Sullivan. In addition, another of Oka’s mentors, acclaimed author Albert Wendt describes Oka’s poetry as an “invitingly open and solid exploration of childhood and young adulthood. It is courageous, urgent, compelling and unusually perceptive and insightful. For someone so young, her voice is already distinct and, at times, dazzling in its lyricism, a fusion that could only have come out of growing up in Hawai‘i.”

Oka’s collection is a publication of Kahuaomānoa Press, a non-profit organization which is comprised entirely of UH Mānoa students. The mission of Kahuaomānoa is to promote and publish student collections of poetry and art. As such, Kahuaomānoa plans to promote and publish at least two collections of student literature and/or art annually. Cofounded by Brandy Nālani McDougall and Ann Inoshita, Kahuaomānoa was created to increase student interest in Literature, Creative Writing, Visual Art, and Editing.

Event Sponsor
Student Activity Program and Fee Board, Mānoa

More Information
Brandy McDougall, 276-1170, brandynm@hawaii.edu

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