New Catalog Available: New Books Fall 2012-Spring 2013

The UH Press New Books Fall 2012-Spring 2013 catalog is now available! To view the 1.9M PDF, click on the catalog cover image to the left.

Highlights for Fall 2012 include:

* A full color guide to planting, growing, harvesting, and enjoying your own edible garden (The Small Food Garden)

* The letters of a 19th-century “American Girl in the Hawaiian Islands” (An American Girl in the Hawaiian Islands: Letters of Carrie Prudence Winter, 1890-1893)

* A comprehensive history of the ‘ukulele that places it in a broad historical, cultural, and musical context (The ‘Ukulele: A History)

* Fully illustrated guides to Hawai‘i’s Japanese Buddhist temples (Japanese Buddhist Temples in Hawai‘i) and Japan’s Shinto shrines (Shinto Shrines: A Guide to the Sacred Sites of Japan’s Ancient Religion)

* A provocative new book examining the social worlds and interrelationships of trafficking activists along the Thai-Lao border (The Perfect Business? Anti-Trafficking and the Sex Trade along the Mekong)

* An engaging perspective on religion and popular visual media in Japan (Drawing on Tradition: Manga, Anime, and Religion in Contemporary Japan)

* A visually and descriptively rich account of the ways objects and artisans are received and their identities transformed in an Indian village (Making Faces: Self and Image Creation in a Himalayan Valley)

* A new edition in the best-selling Korean language textbook series (Integrated Korean: Intermediate 1, Second Edition)

* The definitive volume on loulu, Hawai‘i’s only native palm (Loulu: The Hawaiian Palm)

* The first English translation of a major work by “Japan’s Edgar Allan Poe,” Edogawa Ranpo (Strange Tale of Panorama Island)

* An accessible and clear explication of the oldest surviving Buddhist school (Theravada Buddhism: The View of the Elders)

Family Torn Apart Roundtable Discussion

Join Lily Ozaki Arasato for a roundtable discussion of Family Torn Apart: The Internment Story of the Otokichi Muin Ozaki Family on Saturday, June 23, 10:30-11:30 am, at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i’s Community Gallery. Ms. Arasato is the daughter of Otokichi Ozaki, who was a Japanese language school teacher and tanka poet in Hilo. Family Torn Apart traces Ozaki’s WWII incarceration at eight different camps, his family’s life in Hawai‘i without him, and later their move to join Ozaki in the camps.

Family Torn Apart is distributed by UH Press for the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i.

Uke Hunt Reviews The ‘Ukulele

Al Wood’s Uke Hunt review of The ‘Ukulele: A History, by Jim Tranquada and John King, is full of praise:

“Context Finally! . . . Thought Provoking . . . Great Pictures . . . Well Researched. . . If you care about the history of the ukulele you have to buy [this book]. It’s the definitive book on the subject. There’s no other book that comes close to it.”

For the complete review, go to: http://ukulelehunt.com/2012/06/20/the-ukulele-a-history-by-jim-tranquada-and-john-king-review/.

Live Ukulele at Book Expo America!

A big mahalo to Markie, Nicky, and Sean (a.k.a. Ikeda Katsu), who drove all the way from Boston to NYC to perform at UH Press’ booth at Book Expo America! The guys played two songs, “Over the Rainbow” and “Higher and Higher,” to promote Jim Tranquada and John King’s The ‘Ukulele: A History.

Mahalo also to Sue Wilhite of East West Bookshop for the video!

UPDATE: Another video of Ikeda Katsu at BEA performing “Higher and Higher” but this time . . . the guys are sitting down! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6445ONInMpk

In Memoriam – Helen Geracimos Chapin

Journalist, educator, and author Helen Geracimos Chapin passed away on June 9 in Honolulu. Chapin worked as a news writer at the Honolulu Advertiser and Hilo Herald-Tribune and served as past president of the Honolulu Community-Media Council and the Hawaiian Historical Society. Most recently, she was a professor and vice president at Hawaii Pacific University.

Contemporary Southeast Asian Theatres

Asian theatre is usually studied from the perspective of the major traditions of China, Japan, India, and Indonesia. Now, in Communities of Imagination: Contemporary Southeast Asian Theatres, a wide-ranging look at the contemporary theatre scene in Southeast Asia, Catherine Diamond shows that performance in some of the lesser known theatre traditions offers a vivid and fascinating picture of the rapidly changing societies in the region. Diamond examines how traditional, modern, and contemporary dramatic works, with their interconnected styles, stories, and ideas, are being presented for local audiences. She not only places performances in their historical and cultural contexts but also connects them to the social, political, linguistic, and religious movements of the last two decades.

“Covering the multifaceted, multicultural, multination swathe of Southeast Asia, Communities of Imagination brings to light changes and theatre innovations over the last twenty-five years by focusing on issues of gender, censorship, and national identity. The book gains its strength by diving into actual productions the author has seen in major urban hubs. Diamond places the work in an informed frame, interviewing major theatre makers. Those interested in Southeast Asia will encounter the themes, innovations, and heated debates that theatre is uniquely suited to amplify, making this book an important contribution.” —Kathy Foley, editor, Asian Theatre Journal

June 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3584-2 / $56.00 (CLOTH)