AAPI Book of the Day – He Mele A Hilo by Hugo Nominee Ryka Aoki

AAPI Book of the Day

We had a blast at Nebulas before it even got started. Ryka Aoki is local and she suggested the Tiki Bar at Downtown Disney for our first night in Anaheim. We were like minutes too late to get our Dole Whip (FYI, they stop serving Dole Whip at 10pm.)

Authors in Downtown Disney – Ryka Aoki, J.R. Dawson, Ken Bebelle, Elise Saba Stephens, Julia Vee

Most science fiction fans have heard of Ryka. Her trad debut Light From Uncommon Stars was nominated for a Hugo last year!

We had a great time that evening talking the wonderful experiences that we were having working with Tor. Ryka and Jen have the same editor, and Ken and I enjoyed talking shop and learning about the different approaches between our editors.

Mostly, we concluded there was no “standard” and that the experience was very custom to the individual editor and their respective in-house team that you were working with. Ken and I feel lucky that Ebony Gate has the care and attention of our editor Claire Eddy and the marketing and PR pod we are working with. I also cannot stop singing the praises of the Macmillan Audio folks either and our narrator Natalie Naudus!

But hey it’s AAPI month and I wanted to suggest you pick up a copy of He Mele A Hilo, which is set in Hilo Hawaii.

***

Something strange is happening in Hilo. Noleani Choi’s new show about the life of Jesus Christ told through hula dance has everyone, especially her halau, wondering what she could possibly be thinking. Rumors circulate about a rich guy from the mainland, and the dancers and their friends must reckon with what is really hula, who is Hawaiian enough, and why each of them wants to dance.

On one beautiful island, we discover that loving other people in spite of their flaws might just begin with being true to our own selves.

Review

“Aoki’s spirited, slightly surrealistic, and ultimately upbeat novel challenges settler colonialist rhetoric in its evocation of a pluralist ethos for Hawaiian identity. He Mele A Hilo: A Hilo Song articulates an expansive and inspiring approach to the local and Hawaiian identities….would be productive to read alongside other writers already highlighted in AALF including Gary Pak and Kristiana Kahahauwila.” —Asian American Literature Fans“Aoki engages all of your senses with her portrait of Hawaii. Emotions, visions, ideas, dreams, and plain reality all occupy the space of this world simultaneously. Never before have I more definitively felt I was experiencing a place through art.” —Youngist.org

From the Back Cover

Rich in authentic voice, the book is grounded in emotional honesty, rhythmic prose, and doses of humor and heartbreak that loft the reader along as believers in Aoki’s thrilling dream.”
—Maureen McCoy, Author of Junebug and Walking After Midnight

“A debut novel unlike any you have ever read.”
—Robert Morgan, Author of Gap Creek

 

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