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Surfacing spinner dolphins, Kealakekua Bay, Hawai‘i, 2004. Photograph by Wayne Levin (32:2)
MĀNOA is a unique, award-winning literary journal that includes American and international fiction, poetry, artwork, and essays of current cultural or literary interest. An outstanding feature of each issue is original translations of contemporary work from Asian and Pacific nations, selected for each issue by a special guest editor. Beautifully produced, MĀNOA presents traditional alongside contemporary writings from the entire Pacific Rim, one of the world’s most dynamic literary regions.
Launched in 1989, MĀNOA brings the literature of Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas to English-speaking readers. The journal has published over sixty volumes, 10,000 pages, and 1,400 writers, translators, reviewers, and editors.
Twice a year, MĀNOA presents outstanding contemporary writing—often in new translations—from throughout the region. Past volumes have featured new work from such places as the People’s Republic of China, Tibet, Nepal, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Okinawa, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Australia, French Polynesia, the Pacific Islands, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, as well as Canada, Mexico, Pacific South America, Russian Far East, and Cascadia.
Works in MĀNOA have been cited for excellence by the editors of such anthologies as Best American Short Stories, Best American Poetry, Best American Essays, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, and Pushcart Prize. MĀNOA has also received national awards for its design and editorial excellence.
Praise for the journal received in 2008, on the occasion of its twentieth anniversary:
It’s been such a great honor and a real growth curve for me to be involved with MĀNOA, almost since the inception, first as a book reviewer, then as a Guest Editor and translator, and as Japan Correspondent. What a pleasure it has been to watch it grow and evolve in such wonderful ways, sharing world literature and themes that matter. The work MĀNOA has done in bringing foreign authors to light in English has helped to spread unity and deeper understanding amongst cultures and countries. This is the real meaning of World Peace. Here’s to another twenty years of such great literary work! – Leza Lowitz
Congratulations to all of you on this milestone! I have very much enjoyed the results of your efforts; MĀNOA gives voice to many who would otherwise be unheard. Thank you. – Karen Gernant
If MĀNOA did not exist, it would have to be invented. I don’t know of any comparable publication, for depth, focus, integrity and consistency, continually exploring in necessary directions, always grounded and notably purposeful. Every new issue brings together stimulating new juxtapositions of committed writing (especially showcasing valuable translations) chronicling ongoing truthseeking in what Barry Lopez, in MĀNOA’s recent Gates of Reconciliation, calls “the labyrinth of the ineluctable paradox that defines humanity.” MĀNOA is engaged in patient step-by-step groundwork, illuminating the community that Lopez envisages “where deliberation and history are included in the same gesture that recognizes the insights of genius.” Long may it continue to surprise, delight, and educate. – Ken Rodgers, Kyoto Journal
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