Words and Wine Tuesday in Keauhou
Jill Randall, Geordie Stewart and Mark Martel will be featured during Kona Stories Book Shop’s Words and Wine event at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Keauhou Shopping Center.
Randall is the author of “She Bites — Uncensored,” a very interesting and amazing book about the unusual life of the author who has had more than 50 jobs and is the Jill of all trades and master of none. After more than 30 years on the mainland, she picked the Big Island to spend the last half of her life. When not writing, she teaches Kundalini Yoga and is also a private swim instructor.
Stewart moved to Hawaii Island in 2015 after 16 years of frequent visits to the Hawaii Islands. He produced the book, “Coqui Frog Cookbook” as a guide to local restaurants, places of interest and hidden places that often get missed as you travel around the island.
Martel, a writer and artists, has found the perfect home in Hawaii, where modern life meets the recent past and even prehistory. But his love of the past was slow to emerge. Growing up in Dayton, Ohio, Mark took for granted local legends like the Wright brothers. In 2002, he reconnected with high school classmate Kate Hagenbuch, and sparks flew. Then came the Centennial of Flight in 2003, and her father introduced him to the Engineers Club. Both grew fascinated by its history. They built a website profiling its notable members, and one day Mark realized he had enough for a book.
The result was “Dayton’s Children: The Unlikely Gang Who Brought Us Aviation, ‘The Cash’ And The Keys To The Road.” Martel wrote most of the book, illustrated and designed it. Kate contributed two interviews.
Following a more formal book presentation from each author there will be a Q&A session. The event concludes at 8 p.m.
Info: Brenda or Joy, 324-0350.
UH Press awarded $90K open book grant
The University of Hawaii was recently awarded a $90,000 grant to digitize 100 out-of-print UH Press books for open access.
The project is part of the Humanities Open Book Program, a joint initiative between the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
UH Press selected the 100 titles — representing fields such as Asian studies, Pacific studies, linguistics, anthropology and history — based on their contemporary scholarly relevance, historical significance, and practical value for teaching and research purposes. Beginning in 2018, the digitized titles will be hosted on a custom open-access portal where readers will be able to download them in EPUB and PDF formats. A print-on-demand option will also be offered for select titles
“We hope this project will be only the beginning of a long-term effort to revitalize UH Press’s backlist,” said UH System President David Lassner. “This project will magnify the reach and influence of scholarly work done here at the University of Hawaii, and support educational and cultural initiatives in the Asia and Pacific regions.”
UH Press currently offers more than 800 titles online through library e-book vendors, and more than 350 scholarly monographs through Hawaii Scholarship Online, a partnership with Oxford University Press and University Press Scholarship Online. ■