Marjorie Putnam Sinclair Edel Reading Series

The English Department at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa College of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature has established a Reading Series fund in honor of Marjorie Putnam Sinclair Edel. The Marjorie Putnam Sinclair Edel Reading Series fund will honor the memory of poet, novelist, biographer, and teacher Marjorie Putnam Sinclair Edel (1913-2005) and her lasting contributions to Hawai‘i’s and the University’s literary communities from 1935 into the twenty-first century.

Celebrated authors in this Series will read from their works and engage students, faculty, and the community in discussions about their writing—with a focus on poetry, Hawai‘i, and Hawaiian culture, three of Marjorie Putnam Sinclair Edel’s life-long interests. The primary purposes of this memorial fund will be to establish Hawai‘i firmly as a central site for writing and creativity in the Pacific region, to allow students and the community at large the opportunity for valuable contact with working writers of national and international reputation, and to deliver readings that speak to the program’s purpose.

Marjorie Putnam Sinclair Edel was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 1913, and arrived in Honolulu on the University of Hawai‘i’s first graduate exchange student program in 1935. She is the author of two novels, Kona, written in 1947, and The Wild Wind, written in 1950, a biography, Nahi‘ena‘ena: Sacred Daughter of Hawai‘i in 1976, and numerous poems and short stories reflecting the native Hawaiian experience in the early 20th century. Marjorie Edel also collaborated on translations of the poetry of Lily Pao-Hu Chong, and edited The Path of the Ocean: Traditional Poetry of Polynesia. In addition to teaching at the UH Manoa English Department, she worked with the Hawai‘i Literary Arts Council for over 25 years. Marjorie received the Hawai‘i Writer’s Award in 1981.

To make a contribution or a pledge toward the Marjorie Putnam Sinclair Edel Reading Series, contact the English Department (956-7619) or send a donation directly to UH Foundation for this purpose. All donations are tax deductible, and gifts of any size are welcome, including outright gifts, a pledge over several years.

Marjorie Putnmam Sinclair Edel Reading Series:

November 13, 2006 - Juliana Spahr began writing her most recent book, This Connection of Everyone with Lungs (U of California P, 2005) when she realized that the US would once again begin bombing Iraq. In this series of poems written from November 30, 2002 to March 30, 2003, she mixes lyric conventions with news reports of the deployment to write a series of prose poems that wrap with equal, angular grace around lovers and battleships. The New York Times called This Connection “a poetics of superinformation” and Publishers Weekly called it “innovative, incantatory, politically charged and decidedly accessible.” Other recent work includes the essay collection Poetry & Pedagogy: the Challenge of the Contemporary (Palgrave, 2006), edited with Joan Retallack. She has edited the journal Chain with Jena Osman for the last twelve years and with nineteen other poets she has been an editor of the collectively run and collectively funded Subpress. In addition to writing poetry, she is partial to the short essay format and she self-publishes much of this work; pdfs can be found at people.mills.edu/jspahr.
(HIG Auditorium, 7-9 pm)

March 23, 2006 - Inaugural reading by W.S. Merwin, thirty-year Maui resident and environmental activist whose career as a poet and translator spans five decades. In 1952, he was awarded the Yale Younger Poets prize by W.H.Auden. In addition to the Pulitzer and National Book Award, he has received the Tanning Prize, the Bollingen Prize, and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. While on Maui, Merwin has written nine books of poetry and five of prose. His largest work, The Folding Cliffs, is the story of the struggle of Ko'olau, a victim of Hansen's disease, to remain with his family on Kauai shortly after the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. In 2005, he published an autobiographical book, Summer Doorways; a new volume of poems, Present Company; and Migration.