The monthly Words and Wine event hosted by Kona Stories Book Shop at 6 p.m. Tuesday will feature authors Kahikahealani Wight, Mary Lou Sanelli and George Douvis. The event is free to the public and offers a chance to meet and greet some of Kona’s favorite authors while enjoying complimentary pupu and wine.
The monthly Words and Wine event hosted by Kona Stories Book Shop at 6 p.m. Tuesday will feature authors Kahikahealani Wight, Mary Lou Sanelli and George Douvis. The event is free to the public and offers a chance to meet and greet some of Kona’s favorite authors while enjoying complimentary pupu and wine.
Wight’s newest book, “Rainforest Puuhonua” tells the story of five years spent living in a Hawaiian rainforest in the 1980s. It combines one woman’s search for her Hawaiian roots, stories about the Hawaiian rainforest and its rare gems, including native birds, plants, and insects, and insights into Hawaiian world view and thinking. Wight, the daughter of a Hawaiian father and a mother from New England, grew up conflicted. The stories, songs and language of her ancestors enticed her, but was discouraged from pursuing her interests. In the 1980s, she purchased a cottage in Volcano village where she found her puuhonua in the Hawaiian forests. She currently teaches Hawaiian language at Kapiolani Community College and is the author of “Learn Hawaiian At Home” and “Illustrated Hawaiian Dictionary.”
Sanelli has earned a solid reputation in the literary and public-speaking community and published seven collections of poetry and three works of nonfiction, and her newest title, “A Woman Writing.” The Seattle resident has written for a variety of publications and her columns regularly appear in Seattle’s City Living Magazine, Art Access magazine, and Peninsula Daily News & Lilipoh magazine. In A Woman Writing, Sanelli once again relies on her literary voice and candid sense of humor to explore all the realities true to anyone who has thought of making writing a part of his or her life.
Douvis is the only son of Greek immigrants; he grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he witnessed racial injustice firsthand. He is a holistic health educator, home school teacher, social media activist and a radio presenter. “Crossing Karma Zones” is the author’s personal account of growing up in a racist community, his involvement in the civil rights movement and antiwar protests, psychedelic experiences, the legendary Woodstock Festival and all of the wonder the 1960s had to offer.
Kona Stories is located in Keauhou Shopping Center. For more information, call Brenda or Joy at 324-0350.