Yamanaka, Lois-Ann, 1961-

Lois-Ann Yamanaka (born September 7, 1961) is an American poet and novelist from Hawaiʻi. Many of her literary works are written in Hawaiian Pidgin, and some of her writing has dealt with controversial ethnic issues. In particular, her works confront themes of Asian American families and the local culture of Hawaiʻi. Lois-Ann Yamanaka was born on September 7, 1961, in Hoʻolehua on the island of Molokaʻi, Hawaiʻi. Yamanaka's parents, Harry and Jean Yamanaka, raised her and her four younger sisters in the sugarcane plantation town of Pahala on Hawaiʻi Island. She graduated from Hilo High School in 1979.[1]

Both parents were school teachers, although her father later became a taxidermist. In 1983, she received a bachelor’s Degree, and in 1987 her master's degree, both in Education at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She then went on to become an English and Language Arts resource teacher. Inspired by her own students' honesty demonstrated within poetry assignments, she began writing on her own.

She completed her first book, Saturday Night at the Pahala Theater, in 1993