Live from the Atherton: Megan Kamalei Kakimoto

ABOUT

At this intimate Live from the Atherton event, two Native Hawaiian short story writers discuss the beauty, challenges, and possibilities of the short story form. How does a writer balance concision and expansion? What makes for memorable characters? And how can the short story form address our contemporary moment in Hawai‘i? Kakimoto and Kahakauwila will offer brief readings from their work, engage in conversation, and welcome questions from the audience, before concluding with a book signing.

This event offers the opportunity to engage with the poetics of Hawaiʻi’s past and present.

All Live from the Atherton events are filmed, recorded and photographed for future broadcasts and online content.

About Megan Kamalei Kakimoto:

Megan Kamalei Kakimoto is the Kanaka Maoli author of the story collection Every Drop Is a Man’s Nightmare(Bloomsbury 2023), a USA Today national bestseller. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Granta, Joyland, and elsewhere. Named a Fall 2023 “Writer to Watch” by Publisher’s Weekly, she has received the “Author Under 35” Award by the HONOLULU Book Awards and has been a finalist for the Keene Prize for Literature. Her work has been supported by the Rona Jaffe Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Tin House Winter Workshop. She received her MFA from the Michener Center for Writers and is an Affiliate Faculty in Fiction at Antioch University Los Angeles and a Lecturer in English at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. A Fiction Editor for No Tokens journal, she lives in Honolulu.

Engage with Megan:

Instagram @megankkakimoto
Bluesky @megankkakimoto.bsky.social

About Kristiana Kahakauwila:

Kristiana Kahakauwila is a Kanaka Maoli writer known for her award-winning books This Is Paradise: Stories and Clairboyance, a novel for middle-grade readers. Recently, Clairboyance was selected as a 2025 Honor Book for Children’s Literature by the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association. Kristiana earned a BA in Comparative Literature from Princeton University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. She has held faculty positions at Western Washington University, the Institute of American Indian Arts, and Chaminade University of Honolulu, and she was a Lisa Goldberg Fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study. Since 2020, she has taught in the Department of English at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa where she directs the creative writing program.

Engage with Kristiana:

Instagram @kkahakauwila

Live From the Atherton is Hawai‘i Public Radio’s new flagship multimedia series, featuring music performances, authors and other creative, original thinkers at our Atherton Studio. Throughout 2025, Hawai'i Public Radio will host ticketed events that feature a range of music, from Hawaiian, classical, jazz and indie, as well as authors and speakers across genres including fiction, young adult, keiki and Hawaiian history.

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The Live from the Atherton Author Series takes place on select Thursday evenings at the Atherton Performing Arts studio at Hawaiʻi Public Radio. The author series events begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Doors open thirty minutes before the event starts.

This event will be filmed, recorded and photographed. Your presence constitutes your release of all rights to your recorded voice and image, which may be used in projects by Hawaiʻi Public Radio.

Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis — advance ticket purchase is strongly suggested. General admission tickets are $20. 100% of the proceeds from each event support the featured artists.

Ticket Policy: Ticket sales are final. Sorry, no refunds.

Parking: Street parking is available in the surrounding neighborhood (metered parking is free after 6 p.m.).

Mahalo to HMSA for their sponsorship of our HPR “Live from the Atherton” events.

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HPR exists to serve the people of Hawai’i. We are a trusted, community-funded public service that informs with essential news, inspires through the power of music and the arts, and connects people through conversations and convenings.

See the latest in news, talk, and entertainment at hawaiipublicradio.org

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People with COVID-19 symptoms, a positive test, or exposure to someone with COVID-19 should stay home. People may choose to mask at any time. More information and resources can be found at https://covid.cdc.gov/

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