A major project of Mānoa Foundation is a Hawai‘i writing residency honoring Barry Lopez and emphasizing a spirit of social responsibility. The annual award is given to a writer whose work contributes to an awareness of the civic and ethical obligation of artists; helps us understand, through storytelling, that the survival of a humane world depends upon a commitment to integrity, empathy, and compassionate reconciliation; and inspires us to take social responsibility for the perils, which we have created ourselves, to the human and non-human world.
A small committee of writers and advisors, including Lopez, selects one writer each year for the residency. Selection is based on a letter describing the applicant’s intentions for producing written work during the residency; a sample of prose or poetry that demonstrates the applicant’s approach in addressing the ideals embodied in Lopez’s work; and the candidate’s willingness to participate in community-building activities during the residency, including workshops and public readings. The residency will be located at Ala Kukui, a retreat center in Hana, Maui, through the generous support of Susan O’Connor. The writer will also participate in a workshop, seminar, and/or a public reading in Honolulu.
2019 Recipient
Playwright and human-rights activist Catherine Filloux lives in NYC. Her plays have been produced around the world, and a collection of six of them, Eyes of the Heart, was published in 2017.
2018 Recipient
Anna Badkhen, journalist, war reporter, and nonfiction writer, was selected as the 2018 recipient of the residency. Displaced Lives, the winter 2019 issue of Manoa, opens with her story “Borderlands.”
2016 Recipient
With funding received in part through a Kickstarter campaign, Ann Pancake was selected as the first recipient. In May, she gave an extended talk on the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa campus.