For 45 years, Bamboo Ridge Press has been making what writers call “literary mischief.” To celebrate its publishing anniversary, Bamboo Ridge Press is throwing a fundraising dinner on March 2 at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaiʻi.
It has also recently published a collection of stories to honor the contributions of so many authors over the decades. A reading event on Feb. 29 on Kauaʻi is one of many events to mark the occasion.
The Conversation sat down with Misty Sanico and Scott Kikkawa to talk about the role of Ridge Press in the local writing community.
"One of the important things about Bamboo Ridge, I think, is that it's not tied down by a profit motive, which means we don't do cookbooks and we don't do coffee table books, or books for tourists. We do literature," Kikkawa said. "I think that those 1000-plus voices may never have been heard but for that."
Sanico said a lot of people's careers were launched by having their first poem or story published in Bamboo Ridge.
"We embrace that. We love to hear those stories. And as much as Bamboo Ridge is a literature of place, these stories are so universal, right, at its core it's family, it's our experiences," Sanico added.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Feb. 26, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
