Authors shine at talk session with students

By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Staff Writer

If you still think kids aren't interested in reading these days, you should have been at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa yesterday.

Hundreds of young people, from sixth-graders to college students, packed session after session at the Celebrate Reading Literature Festival to discuss works they've been reading with some unlikely stars: local, Mainland and Pacific authors.

"It's absolutely amazing and awesome to see so many people up here on a Saturday morning," said Samoan novelist and teacher Sia Figiel. "They're really attentive and interested."

OK, so some of the 500 students were there for extra credit as the end of the school year approaches. And a few even admitted that they had been ordered to attend by their teachers.

But after a few hours, nobody was complaining.

"It was exciting. I would have been here even if it hadn't been for extra credit," said Kaimuki 10th-grader Jamie Manuel, who along with 60 others attended a session in which Figiel and Maori poet Robert Sullivan parsed the differences between the book and movie versions of the popular New Zealand "Whale Rider."

Many of those attending the seventh-annual event said they came for the chance to meet the authors, some of whom were greeted like minor music or surfing world stars as they got up to read from their works or discuss their craft.

"You really got to discuss the motive behind what was in the book and learn how they do it," said Beatrice Morlan, a ninth-grader at Kapolei High School, who said her own reading tastes ranged from the Harry Potter books to Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man."

Students, some of whom said they'd probably still be sleeping if they weren't at the session, peppered authors like Lois-Ann Yamanaka ("Blu's Hanging), Chris McKinney ("The Tattoo") and Stuart Coleman ("Eddie Would Go") with probing questions:

• What was the inspiration behind the writing of "Whale Rider?"

Author Witi Ihimaera started the novel after his daughter asked him why there were so few women heroines in books, Sullivan said.

• Where did those horrible scenes about cat torture come from in "Blu's Hanging"?

Many of them were actual things her students admitted doing, Yamanaka said.

• Did you ever do drugs like the characters in "The Tattoo?"

"Well, I experimented," McKinney admitted, "but fortunately the only thing I ever got addicted to was cigarettes."

Many of the authors said it was a similar encounter with an author or teacher sometime in their life that set them on the course to writing.

"I got my start when Lois-Ann Yamanaka spoke to my class in high school," said Steve "Kealoha" Wong, who founded the First Thursdays poetry slam, which draws crowds of more than 500 each month. "That's why I'm so stoked to see so many others here for the give-and-take in the sessions today."

Figiel said she grew up in a story-telling culture, but never saw anyone else like herself in the Dick-and-Jane type books she was forced to read in school.

"So I had to get out and write my own stories," she said, drawing a murmur of recognition from many in the crowd. "In Italy, they're studying dead writers. You're so lucky because you've got us instead." That brought a big laugh.

Justin Dilg, 25 and about to graduate from UH this month, said he spent the past four months mentoring students at Farrington High School, reading some of the book's featured at yesterday's festival.

"We've been talking about how the stories in the books relate to our personal experiences, and now they have the opportunity to ask the questions I wasn't able to answer," Dilg said. "The energy here was amazing."

One of Dilg's students, Jasime Shimabukuro, didn't get to ask any questions of McKinney, but said she still got much out of listening.

"It was my favorite book," she said. "I read it in two days, but now I know more about everything that went into it and how he wrote it so well."

Local writer Cedric Yamanaka, who said he got much of his inspiration from listening to others tell stories in his Kalihi school days, said that back then a reading festival wouldn't have drawn a big crowd.

"Maybe Michael Jordan could fill an auditorium, but writers? I don't think so," he said.

Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.