My passion for writing was fueled in no small part by the sheer volume of books I consumed from an early age. In retrospect, I probably consumed those books because I suffered from a dreadful case of then-undiagnosed myopia and found the written word to be my best means of “seeing” the world around me. Despite my literal, and perhaps figurative, shortsightedness, I won a few of statewide writing competitions with stories that tended to highlight my rebellious yet-sympathetic nature—stories of students getting their cruel teacher fired, and of the redemption of Rapunzel’s captor.



After graduating from the Kamehameha Secondary Schools Kapālama Campus in 2001, and, not incidentally, correcting that pesky myopia problem, I earned my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. There, I was awarded the Grace M. Abernethy Scholarship for my work in creative writing. I assisted my fellow graduate students with their writing, editing dissertations on topics like translation, biology, and art curation. In the time since, I have worked in the Hawai‘i State Legislature and published my work in various online and offline forums. I joined the Savant family in 2014 as an editor, looking to help writers, authors and poets find their voice.

Sincerely,
Momilani Awana