Posted at 9:40 a.m., Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Kneubuhl, Loomis win top Hawai'i literary prize
Advertiser Staff
The state's most prestigious literary prize, the Elliot Cades Award for Literature, this year goes to O'ahu playwright Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl and Maui author Ilima Loomis.With 12 plays about life in Hawai'i under her belt, Kneubuhl took the award for an established artist. She is currently at work on her first novel, a mystery called "The Portrait Murders," which is scheduled to be published by the University of Hawai'i Press in 2008.
A reporter for the Maui News, Loomis has been interviewing Island ranch hands for the Cattlemen's Association's oral history project, Paniolo Hall of Fame. Her first book is "Rough Riders: Hawaii's Paniolo and Their Stories," garnered her the emerging artist award.
Both writers will receive a "substantial cash prize," according to the Hawai'i Literary Arts Council, and will read from their works at a ceremony at the Hawai'i Book and Music Festival in May.
