Professor becomes first Native Hawaiian poet to win national competition

By Web Staff

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    HONOLULU (KITV) — University of Hawai’i at Manoa assistant professor No’u Revilla became the first Native Hawaiian poet to win the National Poetry Series competition.

UH officials said Revilla will most likely become the first openly queer Native Hawaiian woman to have a full-length collection of poetry published by a leader in the industry — in fall 2022.

Revilla received a publishing offer from Milkweed Editions after she topped more than 1,600 other poets in the 2021 NPS open competition.

“I feel very lucky that my work gets to be recognized like this,” Revilla said in a news release. “When I was young, I didn’t have access to poetry written by Hawaiians, and there were definitely no books being published by openly gay Hawaiian women. It is a dream come true.”

Her poetry manuscript “Ask the Brindled” explores how aloha is possible in the face of colonization and sexual violence.

Revilla hopes her first book of poetry will respond to the lack of representation of queer Indigenous women in Pacific Literature.

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