Juliet Kono Explained

Juliet Sanae Kono Lee
Birth Name:Juliet Sanae Asayama
Birth Place:Hilo, Hawaii
Other Names:Juliet Lee
Occupation:poet, author, and instructor

Juliet Kono (born 1943) is a Hawaiʻian poet and novelist.

Early life and education

Kono was born in 1943 in Hilo, Hawaiʻi to Yoshinori and Atsuko Asayama;[1] 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. She was raised as a Shin Buddhist, and her mother and grandmother were active members of Honpa Hongwanji Hilo Betsuin.

After graduating from Hilo High School, she moved to Honolulu, 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. Kono published her first book of poems, Hilo Rains, in 1988, as an undergraduate at Manoa.

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

Career

She took up writing while working at a former job as a police dispatcher, publishing as Juliet S. Kono.[3] 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.[3]  [5]

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

Works for young audiences

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Kono, Juliet S. . — . Hilo Rains . 1988 . Bamboo Ridge Press . Honolulu . 978-0-910043-15-1 . 88-24236.
  2. Web site: Juliet Kono . Poetry Foundation . 8 June 2021.
  3. Interview with author Juliet S. Kono . Long Story Short . Juliet Lee . Leslie Wilcox . July 12, 2011. PBS Hawaii. 2014-02-02.
  4. Book: Asian-American Poets: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook . Huot, Nikolas . Huang, Guiyou. 2002 . 173–176 . Greenwood Publishing Group. 2014-02-02 . 0-313-31809-3.
  5. Interview with author Juliet S. Kono . Juliet S. Kono . Staff report . 2010 . Bamboo Ridge Press . 2014-02-02 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100905112643/http://www.bambooridge.com/feature.aspx?fid=171 . September 5, 2010 . dead.
  6. Web site: Recipients of Past Hawai'i Awards for Literature. May 15, 2014. Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. 2014-02-02.
  7. Web site: Juliet Kono's 'Anshu' captures Po'okela award for literature. Staff report. May 15, 2011. Honolulu Star-Advertiser. 2014-02-02.

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