Megan Kamalei Kakimoto

Megan Kamalei Kakimoto
Born (1993-05-06) May 6, 1993
Honolulu, Hawai'i
EducationKamehameha Schools
Dartmouth College (BA)
University of Texas at Austin (MFA)
OccupationAuthor
Writing career
GenreFiction
Notable awards5 Under 35 Honoree (2026)
Websitewww.megankakimoto.com

Megan Kamalei Kakimoto (born May 6, 1993) is a Japanese and Kanaka Maoli author. She is the author of the story collection Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare.[1] She was named a 2026 "5 Under 35" Honoree by the National Book Foundation.[2][3]

Education

Kakimoto graduated from Kamehameha Schools in Honolulu, Hawai'i.[4] She earned a BA in English from Dartmouth College and an MFA in Writing from the Michener Center for Writers at The University of Texas at Austin.[5][6][7]

Career

Her fiction has been featured in Granta, Conjunctions, Joyland, Electric Literature, Black Warrior Review, Boulevard, Southern Humanities Review, and more.[8][6] She has had essays published in The Guardian, Literary Hub, and elsewhere.[1][9] Her work has been called "a reset for Hawai‘i literature" in Honolulu Magazine.[8]

Kakimoto's debut story collection, Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare,[10] was an instant USA Today National Bestseller,[11] named an Indies Introduce title and a September Indie Next pick by the American Booksellers Association,[12] and a "Best Book of 2023" by Powells Books.[13] The collection consists of eleven short stories that interweave Hawaiian mythology and superstition into a surreal contemporary Hawaiian vision.[14][15]

She is the Fiction Editor for No Tokens Journal.[16]

Kakimoto teaches for Antioch University's MFA Program in Los Angeles and at Honolulu Community College.[17][5] In 2026, she served as the Distinguished Writer in Residence at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.[5][7]

Personal life

She lives in Honolulu.[9][7]

Awards and honors

She was a finalist for the Keene Prize for Literature and has received support from the Rona Jaffe Foundation and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.[9] She is the recipient of the 2025 Elliot Cades Award for Literature from the Hawaiʻi Literary Arts Council.[5]

Bibliography

Novels

Short story collections

Selected stories in literary journals

References

  1. 1 2 "'Our Hawaiian stories are not meant to be easy for you': Megan Kamalei Kakimoto on telling her ancestral tales". The Guardian. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
  2. ↑ "Here are the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 honorees". LitHub. Retrieved 2026-08-06.
  3. ↑ "2026 5 Under 35 Honorees". nationalbook.org. Retrieved 2026-08-06.
  4. ↑ "Interview with Native Hawaiian Author Megan Kamalei Kakimoto". KamalaniHurley.com. Retrieved 2026-08-06.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Megan Kamalei Kakimoto, Honoree". nationalbook.org. Retrieved 2026-08-06.
  6. 1 2 "Megan Kamalei Kakimoto, Contributor". Granta. Retrieved 2026-08-06.
  7. 1 2 3 "Megan Kamalei Kakimoto, Faculty". Antioch University. Retrieved 2026-08-06.
  8. 1 2 "Megan Kamalei Kakimoto's Debut Book Has the Literary World Buzzing". Honolulu Magazine. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
  9. 1 2 3 "Megan Kamalei Kakimoto On The Many Ways To Tell a Hawaiian Story". Literary Hub. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
  10. ↑ "Every Drop is a Man's Nightmare". Bloomsbury. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
  11. ↑ "USA Today's Best-selling Booklist". USA Today. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
  12. ↑ "Indies Introduce". American Booksellers Association. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
  13. ↑ "Best Books of 2023: Fiction". Powells Books. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
  14. ↑ "Every Drop is a Man's Nightmare, Megan Kamalei Kakimoto — nb. Magazine". nb. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  15. ↑ "Review: Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare". The Common. 2023-08-28. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  16. ↑ "Masthead". No Tokens. 10 May 2016. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
  17. ↑ "MFA Program Directory". Antioch University. 10 May 2016. Retrieved 2023-11-07.
  18. ↑ "Every Drop is a Man's Nightmare". Bloomsbury. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
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