The Effigies series has woven a vibrant tapestry of indigenous poets from Native North America and the Pacific. As the third in this series, this anthology continues this weaving with the work of four emerging Pacific islander women poets from Guam, Hawai’i, and Fiji. Despite their distant origins, all these writers explore culture, history, politics, genealogy, feminism, and the environment. They each have their own unique style, ranging from the lyric to the avant-garde. Overall, they represent the next resurgent wave of empowered and decolonial Pacific writers.
No‘u Revilla (Kanaka ‘Ōiwi), Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio (Kanaka ‘Ōiwi), Kisha Borja-Quichocho-Calvo (Chamoru), and Tagi Quolouvaki (Fijian, Tongan) take readers into the vast Pacific ocean to swim beyond the reef in high tide, out to where the water meets the sky, only to circle back to the islands to taste the tears and sweat in coconut and guava, the smell of frangipani on the wind. Amidst such beauty, these poets also carry us into darkness with tremendous power and vulnerability, laying bare the ravages of colonialism―the brutal occupation of country, the violence waged against Native women and girls, the erosion of language and ancestral memory, and the forced disconnections from land, ocean, and other healing lifeways. Effigies III features four debut books that fearlessly journey through these home-islands in ways that will transform and empower.
Allison Adelle Hedge Coke descends from moundbuilders and is of Cherokee, Creek, Huron, Metis, French Canadian, Lorraine, Portuguese, Irish, English, and Scot ascendants. Raised in North Carolina, the Plains and Canada, she previously worked horses, fields, waters, and factories. A fellow of the Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, Black Earth Institute (emeritus), Salon Ada, and The Center for Great Plains Institute.
Brandy Nalani McDougall is a poet of Hawaiian, Chinese and Scottish descent from the island of Maui. An award-winning poet, she has published in journals and anthologies throughout Hawai‘i, the continental U.S. and the Pacific. Her first collection will be released in 2008. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in English from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa.
Craig is a Professor in the English Department at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa, where he teaches creative writing, eco-poetry, and Pacific literature. He is affiliate faculty with the Center for Pacific Islands Studies and the Indigenous Politics Program. He was the Director of the Creative Program (2014-2016 and 2019-2020) and the Chair of the Hawaiian, Asian, and Pacific Islander Board in the Office of General Education (2019-2020).
Kisha Borja-Quichocho-Calvo is a Chamoru writer, educator, activist, and mother from the village of Mangilao on the island of Guċhan, in the Mariana Islands. She is currently a PhD student in the Political Science graduate program (with a specialization in Indigenous Politics) at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Kisha’s creative, academic, and community work are inspired by her Chamoru culture and history, local politics, motherhood, and the love for her home(is)land.
Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio is a Kanaka Maoli wahine poet / activist / scholar born and raised in Pālolo Valley to parents Jonathan and Mary Osorio. Heoli earned her PhD in English (Hawai‘ian literature) with the completion of her dissertation entitled: “(Re)membering ‘Upena of Intimacies: A Kanaka Maoli Mo‘olelo Beyond Queer Theory.” Currently, Heoli is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous and Native Hawai‘ian Politics at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Heoli is a three-time national poetry champion, poetry mentor and a published author.
