Fine design unites Hawaii book award winners

The enduring appeal of printed books — those distinct objects you can read anytime, even during takeoff and landing and without having to charge them — shone at the 2017 Ka Palapala Po‘okela book awards.

The power of design emerged as a unifying and outstanding element in the field of winners announced Thursday by the Hawai‘i Book Publishers Association at the Arts at Marks Garage in Chinatown.

The Samuel M. Kamakau Award for Hawai‘i Book of the Year was awarded to “Hanau ka Ua: Hawaiian Rain Names” (Kamehameha Publishing), written and compiled by kumu hula and social studies teacher Collette Leimomi Akana with her daughter Kiele Gonzalez, illustrated by Sig Zane and designed and produced by Barbara Pope Book Design.

Rich with mele (songs) and moolelo (stories) and botanical illustrations overlaid with rainlike transparencies, “Hanau ka Ua” also won the award of excellence in text or reference books. The judges described the colorful volume as a “beautifully designed and much-needed collection of rain names that will serve as a resource for Hawaiians to reconnect to generational knowledge about their environment.”

The winner in the nonfiction category was “Curve of the Hook: An Archaeologist in Polynesia” (University of Hawai‘i Press), by Bishop Museum senior anthropologist Yosihiko Sinoto with Hiroshi Aramata, edited and translated from the original Japanese by Frank Stewart and Makoda Nagado. This completely new edition in English was also produced and designed by Pope, whose work informed and unified decades’ worth of interviews, journal entries, drawings and archival photographs in an affecting, wide-ranging life story.

The two lovely books exemplify the role played by book design in connecting the elements of a work, from images and text to fonts, spacing and the feel of the materials, which allows the many layers of perception and meaning in its contents to resonate.

A masterful designer will do far more than display images to beautiful effect in a large-format collection of photographs or prints, and, as it happens, two coffee-table-size art books produced by Barbara Pope Book Designs took top honors and honorable mention in the category of excellence in design.

The winner was “E Luku Wale E” (‘Ai Pohaku Press), photographs and text by Mark Hamasaki and Kapulani Landgraf. It documents and laments the destruction of sacred sites and natural landscape for the construction of the H-3 freeway. In this haunting book and the gorgeous runner-up, “Paintings, Prints, and Drawings of Hawai‘i from the Sam and Mary Cooke Collection” (Manoa Heritage Center), by David W. Forbes, one sees how close collaboration between designer, authors, artists and collectors results in books of lasting historical and cultural significance.

In the category of literature, words reign, and when it comes to fiction, design rests with the story. Convincing dialogue and a gripping plot, judges said, gave the top literature award to “Murder Frames the Scene” (University of Hawai‘i Press), a period mystery by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl set in 1930s Hawaii.

The times and personality of a leading Native Hawaiian writer, educator and politician were vividly brought to life in “Facing the Spears of Change: The Life and Legacy of John Papa ‘I‘i” (UH Press), by Marie Alohalani Brown, which won the award of excellence in Hawaiian language, culture and history.

This year marks the 23rd time the awards have been given and the first time they covered a two-year rather than annual span; qualifying books for the 2017 contest were published in 2015 and 2016. A total of 85 entries were nominated in 11 categories.

2017 KA PALAPALA PO’OKELA AWARDS

>> Samuel M. Kamakau Award: “Hanau ka Ua: Hawaiian Rain Names,” by Collette Leimomi Akana with Kiele Gonzalez, illustrated by Sig Zane (Kamehameha Publishing)

>> Hawaiian language, culture, history: “Facing the Spears of Change: The Life and Legacy of John Papa ‘I‘i,” by Marie Alohalani Brown (University of Hawai‘i Press)

>> Illustrative or photographic books: “Royal Hawaiian Featherwork: Na Hulu Ali‘i,” edited by Leah Caldeira, Christina Hellmich, Adrienne L. Kaeppler, Betty Lou Kam and Roger G. Rose (UH Press, in association with Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco)

>> Literature: “Murder Frames the Scene: A Hawai‘i Mystery,” by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl (UH Press)

>> Natural science: “Hawai‘i’s Kolea: The Amazing Transpacific Life of the Pacific Golden-Plover,” by Oscar W. Johnson and Susan Scott (UH Press)

>> Nonfiction: “Curve of the Hook: An Archaeologist in Polynesia,” by Yosihiko Sinoto with Hiroshi Aramata; edited by Frank Stewart; translated by Frank Stewart and Madoka Nagado (UH Press)

>> Special interest books: “Aloha Expressionism by Contemporary Hawaii Artists,” by Tiffany DeEtte Shafto and Lynda McDaniel (Contemporary Publications)

>> Aloha from Across the Sea: “Taken From theParadise Isle: The Hoshida Family Story,” edited by Heidi Kim (University Press of Colorado)

>> Children’s literature: “‘Iwa: The Hawaiian Legend,” written and illustrated by Dietrich Varez (Petroglyph Press)

>> Cookbooks: A Filipino Kitchen: Traditional Recipes with an Island Twist,” by Adam Tabura (Mutual Publishing)

>> Design: Barbara Pope Book Design, for “E Luku Wale E,” photography by Piliamo‘o: Mark Hamasaki and Kapulani Landgraf (‘Ai Pohaku Press)

For a full list of nominees and honorable mentions visit hawaiipublishers.org.