Bamboo Ridge, Journal of Hawai’i Literature and Arts (Issue #124)

Anniversary Anthology Celebrating BAMBOO RIDGE and 45 Years of Literary Mischief-making in Hawaiʻi.

Bamboo Ridge founding editors Eric Chock and Darrell H. Y. Lum have returned to spearhead a new anniversary anthology celebrating 45 years of literary mischief-making in Hawaiʻi. With contributions from sixty-eight talented writers, the book features poems and stories that explore themes of cultural identity, art, resistance, and community. It's a collection that honors the resilience of local storytelling and Hawaiʻi's literary spirit, reaffirming Bamboo Ridge's commitment to foster, embrace, and preserve AANHPI voices. At over 400 pages, Issue #124 is one of the largest in the journal's history.

The cover art is inspired by an original photo taken in 1978 by Darrell Lum at the East O'ahu fishing spot, known as Bamboo Ridge, where hand-painted warnings adorned the rocky path. He titled the photo "Abunai" the Japanese word for "dangerous."

The choice of "Abunai" as the cover theme pays homage to Bamboo Ridge's audacious beginnings. At its inception, Bamboo Ridge Press embarked on a mission that many considered "abunai," opposing dominant narratives and stereotypes about Hawaiʻi and its people and taking a daring stand on the importance and value of local literature. The challenges faced by the journal in those early days have persisted as Bamboo Ridge remains dedicated to publishing works by, for, or about the people of Hawai'i and the Pacific--often making waves and navigating financial precarity.

Eric Chock and Darrel Lum founded Bamboo Ridge Press, a small literary press devoted to publishing work that reflects Hawaii's multicultural people, in 1978.

Eric Chock is the author of LAST DAYS HERE (Bamboo Ridge Press, 1990), a collection of poetry written partly in Hawaiian Creole English, a language historically associated with immigrant laborers. In his work, Chock frequently explores the experiences of Hawaiian Chinese immigrants, and he is known for his advocacy of "local writing." He has edited numerous anthologies of local writing, including Talk Story: An Anthology of Hawaii's Local Writers (Petronium Press, 1978) and, with Darrell Lum, Paké Writings by Chinese in Hawaii (Bamboo Ridge Press, 1989) and BEST OF HONOLULU FICTION (Bamboo Ridge Press, 1999), among others.

Darrel Lum's own work draws on the humor and heartbreak of growing up in Hawaii speaking pidgin English (Hawaiian creole English). It explores the formation of a "local" identity, one formed by grandmothers who arrive in Hawaii as children at the end of the nineteenth century and of whom he was ashamed as a child, longing to be "all- American"; by a grandfather who wrote classical Chinese poetry in an outdoor gazebo he called "Lum's Pavilion of Filial Piety Inspirations"; and by all the stories that continue to weave in and out of his life.

Juliet Kono is the author of two collections of poetry, HILO RAINS (Bamboo Ridge Press, 1988) and TSUNAMI YEARS (Bamboo Ridge Press, 1995), and collaborated on NO CHOICE BUT TO FOLLOW (Bamboo Ridge Press, 2010), a series of linked poems, with the poets Jean Yamasaki Toyama, Ann Inoshita, and Christy Passion. ANSHU: DARK SORROW (Bamboo Ridge Press, 2010), Kono's first novel, follows a young Hawaiian woman through World War II-era Japan. Kono is also the author of the short story collection HO`OLULU PARK AND THE PEPSODENT SMILE (Bamboo Ridge Press, 2004) and a children's book, The Bravest `Opihi (BeachHouse Publishing, 2014)