Windward Community College instructor Janine Oshiro received the Elliott Cades Awards for Literature. 

Cades, an English instructor, was one of two winners of the prestigious Hawaii literary award chosen by the Hawaii Literary Arts Council, which is charged with hosting the awards program. Oshiro was recognized as an emerging artist.

Oshiro accepted her award and read a selection of poems at the Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival on the Civic Grounds at Honolulu Hale held May 5-6.

Oshiro was born in Kahaluu and raised in Mililani. She graduated from Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash., received her master’s degree in writing from Portland State University, and studied at the University of Iowa Writers’ workshop. She is a Kundiman fellow and the recipient of a poetry fellowship from Oregon’s Literary Arts.

Her first work, “Pier,” was published last year. 

 The Cades Awards, given annually since 1988, were created by Charlotte and J. Russell Cades in memory of Russell’s brother, Elliott, a teacher and lover of literature.