Declarations

“Intended to be by, for and about those who read, write and engage with the Islands.”

That’s it. That’s the Tweet.

We feel this town and state needs more literate writing (meaning about literary topics, but also more informed), more lively writing (meaning creative and also, writing not constrained by timid corporate or politically motivated overseers), and more writing that comes out quickly enough to capitalize on topical events, but slowly enough to allow the development of a higher quality than what you generally find elsewhere.

So this review will be a clearinghouse of good stories by good writers that probably couldn’t survive the editorial processes at other local publishers.

As the name indicates, our bread and butter, or poi and aku, or Spam musubi, will be reviewing local literature. But don’t be fooled into thinking this is a collection of book reports. That would be so seventh grade. No, books are entry points to broader discussions. We intend to have those discussions in our pieces and in your, the reader’s, reactions to them.

We want to encourage forthright and candid reviewing, so we encourage and publish anonymous reviews. However, these are vetted and edited for snark, careerism, inaccuracy, simplistic generalities and rank boosterism. (No, you can’t review your own book, even though Whitman did.)

We will entertain any submitted work on any subject from long-form nonfiction to tiny haiku book reviews (it’s our proprietary thing). Try us.

There’s a principle in reading submissions that goes like this: First sentence, first paragraph, first page—at any point we may stop and say, nope, not for us. So work on your work before submitting. Pro tip: Don’t spend paragraphs clearing your throat.

No, we don’t pay anything. We do accept gift cards from Longs.

Q: Are we inclusive? A: Try us.

Want to meet us and talk? Sure. Bring malassadas.

hawaiireviewofbooks
-at- gmail.com