O’ahu Writers Retreat at Mokule’ia

08/29/2025

Sharing this because it's so important that we all express ourselves--and not just in memoirs, poems, and pretty prose. There are lots of great tips here, including on how to think about your audience, and how to make sure you get heard. (Or, um, read.) I hope Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes can talk about this kind of writing in April 2026.

These contentious times call for us to express the strength of our opinions in writing

08/21/2025

These are the dog days of August. Are you writing? Avoiding writing? Thinking of what you will write this fall? I’m doing all of those, and also realizing that I have a nice gap in my editing schedule, as two clients just turned their final MSs into their publisher and a big piece I edited (see below) came out in Rolling Stone: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/napalm-girl-photo-controversy-investigation-vietnam-war-1235395151/

I’d love to offer you a special rate for coaching and editing for la rentrée, that period the French recognize as back from vacations, back to school, back to the Big Reset—the “return” to work, cultural activities, and a general re-engagement with daily life.

From now through Sept. 15, I’m offer two hours of coaching or editing for $100. If you want more than that, let’s talk. I can offer you a special rate for more work, too. (Some of my credentials are below.)

Many of you know Malcolm Ryder. He created used AI to create this playful of my AI avatar stringing books on a tree. I love the spirit of that as I help others to imagine their creative projects. Be in touch via the contact button at sinandsyntax.com if you’re interested.

My credentials as an editor, and testimonials are here: https://www.prosedoctors.com/constance-hale/ I need to update that info, because some recent editing coups include the Pulitzer for biography in 2022 for a longtime client, as well as the completion of a fascinating book on right-wing Christian women (for Norton) by another client, and a book on “money conversations” sold by a third. I've also edited Arlie Hochschild (Strangers in Their Own Land), the memoir of a veteran NFL linebacker, a book (Results) by the governor of Massachusetts.

But I don't mean to name drop. I edit all kinds of books by all kinds of writers. And love all of it.

08/20/2025

Our next "reunion" Google Meet is coming up on September 6. Mark your calendar! Details to come soon in an email, and here!

07/16/2025

This Saturday, July 19 at 3pm, author and creative writing professor Donald Carreira Ching will be leading a casual writing workshop at Native Books! He'll guide writers through utilizing details of taste, smell, sight, touch, and sound to write to, and about, a place or memory. This workshop will follow a reading from Donald's new book, Blood Work and Other Stories. 📖

We welcome all writers, no matter your experience level! You'll get to take home new writing ideas, as well as the postcard featured in this post.

07/16/2025

Highly recommended.

This Saturday, July 19 at 3pm, author and creative writing professor Donald Carreira Ching will be leading a casual writing workshop at Native Books! He'll guide writers through utilizing details of taste, smell, sight, touch, and sound to write to, and about, a place or memory. This workshop will follow a reading from Donald's new book, Blood Work and Other Stories. 📖

We welcome all writers, no matter your experience level! You'll get to take home new writing ideas, as well as the postcard featured in this post.

06/06/2025

Keeping a culture alive, one step at a time

06/01/2025

05/25/2025

Join us in a Google Meet tomorrow (5/26) at noon. Mostly it's a gathering of alumni from the April retreat, but others are welcome. (Message me for the link or post your email address in comments.) A little coaching, a little kvetching, and a lot of klatching. And in the meantime, some photos...

05/07/2025

Oh how I would love to be at this event. I hope some of our alumni can attend and tell us all about it!

Send a message to learn more

04/15/2025

A message from one of our sponsors. I mean, teachers:

Aloha everyone,

My name is Donald Carreira Ching. I’ll be teaching two workshops at the retreat and reading from my new collection.

I was born and raised in Kahaluʻu on the island of Oʻahu and earned my PhD in English from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. My debut novel, Between Sky and Sea: A Family’s Struggle, was published by Bamboo Ridge Press in 2015 and was awarded the Ka Palapala Poʻokela award for excellence in literature, honorable mention, and is listed by Honolulu Magazine as one of Hawaiʻi’s “essential books.” My writing has appeared in numerous publications and anthologies locally and elsewhere, including StoryQuarterly, Every Day Fiction, and RHINO. In 2018, I was awarded the Elliot Cades award for Literature, Emerging Writer, Hawaiʻi’s most prestigious literary award.

If you’re interested in checking out my work, you can preorder my new collection, Blood Work and Other Stories, here: https://www.bambooridge.org/preorder-br127/

BLOOD WORK AND OTHER STORIES
What We Carry. What We Inherit. What We Leave Behind.

On the Windward side of O‘ahu, change moves fast—developers buy up neighborhoods, locals move away, and families struggle to hold on to what’s left. But beneath the surface of each loss is something more enduring: memory, love, and the small, steady acts of resilience that carry people forward.

Through finely drawn moments and layered landscapes, both physical and emotional, Blood Work and Other Stories offers a rare look at the complexities of local life in the islands, holding space for struggle while refusing despair.

In these seventeen haunting yet hopeful stories of family and survival, Donald Carreira Ching captures a Hawai‘i shaped by love, loss, and quiet resistance.

04/15/2025

Last questions before the retreat? Post them here. And here's an update from me. If you are local and want to do yoga on Tuesday morning, bring your mat!

Send a message to learn more