Juliet Sanae Kono Lee
Juliet Kono - reading at the Asian American Literature Festival (2017)
Born
Juliet Sanae Asayama

1943 (age 80–81)
Hilo, Hawaii
Other namesJuliet Lee
Occupation(s)poet, author, and instructor

Juliet Kono is a Hawaiʻian poet and novelist.

Early life and education

Kono was born in 1943 in Hilo, Hawaiʻi to Yoshinori and Atsuko Asayama;[1]: viii  her grandparents were immigrants from Japan. One of her earliest memories is from the April 1 tsunami resulting from the 1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake; her family lost their home, which was near the water's edge where Liliʻuokalani Gardens is today, and were forced to live near her grandparents, who operated a small sugar cane plantation in Kaiwiki.[2]: 2–4  She was raised as a Shin Buddhist, and her mother and grandmother were active members of Honpa Hongwanji Hilo Betsuin.[3]

After graduating from Hilo High School, she moved to Honolulu,[2]: 5  where she attended the University of Hawaii, but dropped out and started a family, then worked as a police radio dispatcher before she received her Bachelor (1988) and Master of Arts (1990) degrees from University of Hawaii at Manoa; as an adult student, she earned her BA and graduated with her son.[2]: 5–6  Kono published her first book of poems, Hilo Rains, in 1988, as an undergraduate at Manoa.[4]

Kono is retired and worked as an English instructor at Leeward Community College.[5] She is married to David Lee,[1]: viii  who was a fellow dispatcher.[2]: 5 

Career

She took up writing while working at a former job as a police dispatcher, publishing as Juliet S. Kono.[2] Kono has also taught at guest workshops for universities and colleges including Wellesley College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[4]

She is considered a member of the Bamboo Ridge group of writers[4] and also is an ordained Buddhist minister.[2]: 5  [3]

Awards

Kono received a Creative Artist Exchange Fellowship from the Japan-United States Friendship Commission in 1998[4] and the Hawaii Award for Literature in 2005.[6] Her novel Anshu: Dark Sorrow received the 2011 Ka Palapala Po'okela Book Award for Literature.[7]

Bibliography

  • — (1988). Hilo Rains (PDF). Honolulu: Bamboo Ridge Press. ISBN 978-0-910043-15-1. LCCN 88-24236. (published as a special double issue of Bamboo Ridge: The Hawaii Writer's Quarterly, issues 37 and 38, Winter & Spring 1988)
  • Kono, Juliet S.; Song, Cathy, eds. (1991). Sister Stew: Poetry and Fiction by Women. Bamboo Ridge Press. ISBN 0-910043-22-1.
  • — (1995). Tsunami Years (PDF). Bamboo Ridge Press. ISBN 0-910043-35-3. (published as a special double issue of Bamboo Ridge, issues 65 and 66)
  • — (2004). Hoʻolulu Park and the Pepsodent Smile, and Other Stories. Bamboo Ridge Press. ISBN 0-910043-70-1.
  • — (2010). Anshu: Dark Sorrow. Bamboo Ridge Press. ISBN 978-0-910043-83-0.
  • Yamasaki Toyama, Jean; Kono, Juliet S.; Inoshita, Ann; Passion, Christy (2011). No Choice but to Follow. Bamboo Ridge Press. ISBN 978-0-910043-82-3. (special issue of Bamboo Ridge #96)
  • Passion, Christy; Inoshita, Ann; Kono, Juliet S.; Yamasaki Toyama, Jean (2017). What We Must Remember. Bamboo Ridge Press. ISBN 978-0-910043-97-7.

Works for young audiences

  • — Fukawa, Emi (illus.) (1997). How the Ocean Fooled Us. ISBN 9780021825059.
  • — Trang, Winson (illus.) (2000). A Day on the Cyclo. ISBN 9780021477043.
  • — Chang, Heidi (illus.) (2000). The Pancake Place. ISBN 9780021476985.
  • — Fujitake, Dennis (illus.) (2005). The Bravest ʻOpihi. ISBN 9781933067636.

References

  1. 1 2 — (1988). Hilo Rains (PDF). Honolulu: Bamboo Ridge Press. ISBN 978-0-910043-15-1. LCCN 88-24236.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Juliet Lee (July 12, 2011). "Interview with author Juliet S. Kono" (PDF). Long Story Short (Interview). Interviewed by Leslie Wilcox. PBS Hawaii. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  3. 1 2 Juliet S. Kono (2010). "Interview with author Juliet S. Kono" (Interview). Interviewed by Staff report. Bamboo Ridge Press. Archived from the original on September 5, 2010. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Huot, Nikolas (2002). Huang, Guiyou (ed.). Asian-American Poets: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 173–176. ISBN 0-313-31809-3. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  5. ↑ "Juliet Kono". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
  6. ↑ "Recipients of Past Hawai'i Awards for Literature". Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. May 15, 2014. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  7. ↑ Staff report (May 15, 2011). "Juliet Kono's 'Anshu' captures Po'okela award for literature". Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
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