HELLO
WORLD
HAWAII-BORN, NYC-BASED
WRITER & MARKETER
ABOUT MEI’m a Honolulu-born and New York City-based writer and brand marketer. I’m currently working on a debut short fiction collection set in contemporary Hawaii.
Learn more.
I started my career in media at brands shaping global conversations on culture, business and lifestyle like The Atlantic, Hearst Magazines, The Wall Street Journal and Forbes. As a lifestyle journalist, my work was published in Town & Country, Departures, Out and more.
But my writing career actually started in high school. Think: Sulky teen wearing black sweaters in the tropical heat. My fiction and poetry won national recognition, and was featured in anthologies of best young American writers. I was even invited to fly from Honolulu to D.C. to give a reading at The White House.
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE ON REPEAT
Today, I’m a director of brand marketing at Shopify, the global e-commerce company. Growing up in an extended family of gutsy entrepreneurs, I love working with new generations of founders, makers and creators now to make commerce more accessible for all. More here.
I graduated from Yale University and live in Manhattan with my husband. I’m proudly hapa—half Japanese & Chinese, half Swiss & Irish—and lucky to have an enormous and incredibly close family in Hawaii that I’m able to see often.
FICTION WRITING
I’m currently completing a debut short story collection rooted in contemporary Hawaii—its place, its people and its promises.
The eleven stories in this collection excavate the hidden veins of isolation, precarity, and longing that run beneath Hawaii’s familiar tourist veneer, illuminating the many fractured experiences of those living on the margins of paradise.
The pursuit of a mind-altering drug derived from endangered frogs tests a young couple’s bond.
A grieving caregiver’s moon garden starts attracting strange nighttime visitors.
A bullied tomboy seeks revenge with help from the unsettling ‘aumakua who lives below her house.
An aging yard man quietly confronts his own obsolescence amidst the panic of a ballistic missile warning.
A father lies to his son about the real reason for their months-long beach camping trip.
A disgraced chef befriends the ghost that haunts a Waikiki karaoke bar.
A man struggles to find his place among the five generations of ancestors that crowd his family home.
Inspired by authors like Kawai Strong Washburn, Megan Kamalei Kakimoto, and Lauren Groff, this collection will appeal to readers who find themselves drawn to the peculiar psyche of island life.