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 fiction collection rooted deeply in contemporary Hawaii—its place, its people and its promises.
The stories in this collection excavate the hidden veins of isolation, desire and wonder that run beneath Hawaii’s familiar tourist veneer—ultimately revealing two Hawaiis:
One a wilderness of conflicted loyalties, failing ecosystems and fraying communities. The other a harbor of tightly knit families, fiercely held beliefs and unsettling beauty.
A grieving daughter's night garden attracts strange visitors
The frantic search for a mind-altering drug tests a young couple’s bond
Two siblings' relationship erodes as they confront the fallout of their inheritances
A young girl’s ‘aumakua takes an unsettling form
An aging yard man confronts the prospect of his own obsolescence
And more…