Kristiana Kahakauwila is a hapa writer of Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian), Norwegian, and German descent. She is the author of This is Paradise: Stories, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and the middle-grade novel Clairboyance, a 2025 Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association’s Children’s Literature Honor title. Kristiana has served as faculty at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Kundiman, and Western Washington University, among others. Today she is an associate professor in the Department of English at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa, where she directs their creative writing program.