A Writer's Guide to Honolulu

The flagship of the Hawaii State Public Library System stands next door to ʻIolani Palace. Writers working on Hawaiʻi should start in its Hawaiʻi & Pacific Section. The federal documents section has been a depository since 1929, and a Friends' book store is on site. The library is closed Sundays.

Kaimukī's branch has meeting rooms, and its Adult Reading Room keeps a Hawaiʻi & Pacific section. It closes Saturdays but opens on Sundays.

Mānoa's branch has meeting rooms plus a separate programming room. Parking is free.

The Hawaiian Collection covers Hawaiʻi from the 18th century to the present, and the Pacific Collection is strong in Pacific literature and voyaging accounts. Both are closed stacks on the fifth floor, so request what you need through OneSearch. Any researcher can use the general collections. Borrowing is mostly for UH Mānoa affiliates.

The Manuscript Collections document Hawaiʻi's people, history and politics. During the fall and spring semesters you can usually come without an appointment, though staff ask you to tell them ahead. The reading room is open Monday through Thursday.

The Mission Houses archive holds an 1844 journal that Kamehameha IV and V kept as students at the Chiefs' Children's School. Its library books can be used only in person. Email well ahead for an appointment, since replies can take two weeks; the reading room opens Mondays and the second and fourth Saturdays.

Bess Press runs da Shop, a community bookstore with national and international titles and a focus on Hawaiʻi and Oceania. It carries children's books as well. Author talks and readings take place in the back warehouse space. The store closes Mondays and Tuesdays.

Native Books is a bookstore and a publisher, with imprints that include Paʻi Hou and Kaiao Press, and it is devoted to literature from Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. Look here for Hawaiian-language titles and poetry. It hosts readings and film screenings and is open daily. Take off your shoes at the door.

The Friends of the Library of Hawaiʻi run this used bookstore, which began as Village Books & Music, at the corner of Ward Avenue and Kapiʻolani Boulevard. Proceeds from its books and records go to Hawaiʻi's 51 public libraries. It is closed Mondays.

Plantoem is a second-floor café at the back of a plant shop, and it doubles as a community event space. Honolulu Magazine recommends it for hours of focused work. There are outlets by the tables and the counter.

Students long knew this corner as Coffee Talk, and Honolulu Magazine noted its outlets and semi-private nooks. As Talk Kaimuki it serves coffee every day and cocktails Thursday through Saturday nights.

The Manifest calls itself a red brick oasis by day and a cocktail bar by night. Honolulu Magazine found plenty of outlets. It is closed Sundays and Mondays.

Honolulu Magazine lists this Ala Moana Center café among places with outlets for laptop work. It is open daily.

The Honolulu Museum of Art's open-air café serves fresh, casual food. The museum closes Mondays and Tuesdays.

This oceanfront restaurant shares its name with Earl Derr Biggers's 1925 Charlie Chan novel, which he wrote at the Halekulani. Hawaiian music and a hula dancer perform every evening.

The Hau Tree is named for the hau grove where, the hotel says, Robert Louis Stevenson found rest and poetry. The beachfront restaurant serves brunch, pau hana, and dinner.

Mirage serves Turkish and other Middle Eastern coffee. It holds an art opening every couple of months and hosts open mic nights. It closes Sundays and Mondays.

Kumu Kahua stages plays about life in Hawaiʻi by Hawaiʻi playwrights. Playwrights can enter its contest and take its workshops. With Bamboo Ridge Press it runs Go Try Playwrite, a monthly prompt contest for a short monologue or scene.

The Friends have supported Hawaiʻi's public libraries since 1879. They run the annual Booksale and the Friends' Books & Music Store, and since 2025 they have administered the Elliot Cades Awards for Literature.

MIA Honolulu has held readings for Hawaiʻi writers since 2009. Its monthly evenings, most of them free, each take a theme and mix stories, poetry and art.

The festival is for all ages, with authors and artists selling everything from children's picture books to romance. Its organizers keep vendor fees low so writers can take part.

Hawaiʻi's state humanities council runs public programs that include Hawaiʻi History Day and the Hawaiʻi Poet Laureate program. It also keeps a library and archive of humanities resources.

The center studies life writing across disciplines. It has published Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly since 1978, and its weekly Brown Bag Biography lectures are open to the public. It also awards the Biography Prize.

The Center for Pacific Islands Studies publishes the journal The Contemporary Pacific and the Pacific Islands Monograph Series. It holds a seminar series and international conferences and runs a visiting artists program.

University of Hawaiʻi Press publishes books and journals in Asian studies, Hawaiian history and philosophy, and its journals include The Contemporary Pacific. Filipino American history and LGBTQ scholarship are on the list too.

Bamboo Ridge began in 1978 with Eric Chock and Darrell H.Y. Lum as its founding editors, and it publishes literature by and about Hawaiʻi's people. The nonprofit press issues two volumes a year: a journal of poetry and fiction, and either a single-author book or a themed anthology. It also holds free public readings and workshops and runs the Bamboo Shoots writing-prompt contests.

Philosophy East and West is a quarterly of comparative philosophy that publishes scholarship on non-Western traditions in relation to Anglo-American philosophy. Its editor is in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Preparing an article for Philosophy East and West

The Cades Awards, given since 1988, honor an Established Writer and an Emerging Writer each year. Poets, playwrights, novelists, essayists, and other literary artists who live or have lived in Hawaiʻi can be nominated. Work about life in Hawaiʻi is sought, though any fine literary writing is considered.

Every two years the Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities gives this award to an accomplished poet whose innovative work pushes the boundaries of poetic craft. Residents of any U.S. state or territory who write in English are eligible. Poets connected to Hawaiʻi or the Pacific get preference.

Kumu Kahua runs this annual contest with UH Mānoa's Department of Theatre & Dance. The Hawaiʻi Prize and the Pacific Rim Prize go to full-length plays and are open to non-residents. Hawaiʻi residents can also enter the Resident Prize, for plays of any topic and length.

This page lists grants and writing resources for University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa students.

The same guide, for Hawaii Pacific University students.

Chaminade students have a page of their own on the same site.

Honolulu Printmakers, founded in 1928, is a membership organization. Members get access to its community-access printing studio, and its workshops have included stone lithography.

Cravings Media is a letterpress design studio and shop. Its group classes and private sessions cover posters, greeting cards and personalized stationery, and it takes custom handprinted work.

Mutual Publishing, from its office in Kaimukī, also produces self-published books. Basic layout and cover design come with the service, and editing and proofing cost extra. Printing and binding take about two months. Authors receive and sell their own copies.

The fiber arts guild keeps its studio at St. Luke's Episcopal Church. Its classes have included linocut printmaking and a papermaking and coptic-stitch bookbinding course. Watch its calendar for book arts.