Her stories may be an acquired taste, especially for readers unfamiliar with pidgin English. But when author and poet Lois-Ann Yamanaka spins a yarn, it is invariably an unflinching look at the complex web of race, class and cultural identity in Hawai'i.
Her deeply personal and disturbing work has made the Moloka'i-born, Big Island-raised Yamanaka the most widely recognized — and arguably the most controversial — fiction writer in the Islands.
Yamanaka was born in 1961 and grew up in Pahala, a Big Island sugar plantation town, during a time when it was the official policy of Hawai'i's education system to eradicate pidgin. It left her angry.
A University of Hawai'i-Manoa graduate, Yamanaka taught in public schools for 12 years.
In 1993, she published the award-winning "Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre," a collection of poems written in pidgin. Yamanaka's use of pidgin prompted the book to be banned in some schools and she was not invited to give readings.
Her 1997 book, "Blu's Hanging," drew anger even as it drew praise. Filipinos across the country said it perpetuated stereotypes of Filipino men as sexual predators.
Yamanaka lives and writes in Honolulu, where she and a good friend operate Na'au, a writing school for children and adults.
Her most recent novel, "Behold the Many," was published in February 2006 and was inspired by what she said were the ghosts of three children that once haunted her Kalihi Valley home.
