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Elliot Cades accolades go to Hawaii isle writers
Two Hawaii island writers have been named winners of the 2012 Elliot Cades Award for Literature.
The award — given annually by the Hawai‘i Literary Arts Council since 1988 — recognizes an established writer and an emerging writer who live in Hawaii.
Pamela Frierson, who resides on the slopes of Mauna Kea, was honored for her latest book, "The Last Atoll: Exploring Hawai‘i’s Endangered Ecosystems" (Trinity University Press), which chronicles a decade of her travels to the remote islands and atolls that are home to rare Hawaiian monk seals, Laysan ducks and Nihoa millerbirds and largely unexplored reefs.
Frierson is also the author of "The Burning Island: Myth and History in Volcano Country, Hawai‘i."
Emerging author Mark Panek, an associate professor of English at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, was honored for his book "Big Happiness: The Life and Death of a Modern Hawaiian Warrior" (University of Hawaii Press).
The nonfiction work tells of Percy Kipapa’s return to his island home after a 10-year career in Japan as a sumo wrestler and examines his descent into crystal methamphetamine addiction and his stabbing death.
"Big Happiness" was the nonfiction winner at the 2012 Hawai‘i Book Publishers Association’s Ka Palapala Po‘okela Awards.
Both writers will receive their Cades honors and read from their works at the annual Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival, which takes place May 18-19 at the Frank F. Fasi Civic Grounds at Honolulu Hale.
