Writing
Kalilinoe writes poetry, fiction, and non/fiction around the themes of resistance, perseverance, hope, and transformation. Her work often considers the coming-of-age narrative as she navigates the ways one grows into kuleana and nurtures their relationship to community and place. She enjoys playing with genre, form, and language to find honest representations of memories, new expressions of traditional moʻolelo, and abundant reconstructions of the world in relation to the self.
Published Work
Poetry, Poetry Northwest, 2026.
"Ribs are romantic"
"This ocean of faults" "Tonight her kūpuna overturn the sea floor”
Poetry, E Ola Mau Hōkūleʻa – Half a Century of Voyaging, 2026.
"The Land Has Eight Eyes"
Poetry, Black Warrior Review Issue 52.2, Forthcoming.
Poetry, Yellow Medicine Review Spring Issue, 2025.
Poetry, Academy of American Poets, Poets.org, 2025.
Poetry, We the Gathered Heat Asian American Pacific Islander Anthology, Haymarket Books, 2024.
Short story, Yellow Medicine Review Fall Issue, 2023.
Poetry, Academy of American Poets, Poets.org, 2022.
"Contemporary Moʻolelo: Filling the Literature Stream with Pacific Water"
Chapter, Mānoa Horizons Journal, Vol. 5., 2020.
Readings
Selection of poetry
ʻIlau Ka Hula. Bishop Museum. July 4, 2026.
Selection of poetry
ʻIke i ke Nani o Lēʻahi. Wahi Pana: Storied Places. Operational Red Wings Medal of Honor Park. June 12, 2026.
Selection of poetry
Linked Hearts Global Majorities Health Month. Zoom. May 9, 2026.
Selection of poetry
Charm City 49: IN-NA-PO, NDN Girls Bookclub, IAIA MFA CW. Baltimore MA. March 6, 2026.
Selection of poetry
E Ola Mau Hōkūleʻa – Half a Century of Voyaging, Hawaiʻi Inspiration Museum. December 6, 2025.
Selection of poetry
Indigenous Nations Poets 2025 Fellows Reading, The Poetry Project, Manhattan, August 2, 2025.
Selection of poetry
Mānoa Journal Pau Hana Friday, Pine and Crane, Los Angeles. March 28, 2025.
Selection of poetry
Indigenous Nations Poets AWP Reading, DTLA, Los Angeles, March 28, 2025.
Selection of poetry
We the Gathered Heat Haymarket Books AAPI Anthology event, daShop Books. February 29, 2025.
Selection of poetry
Island Earth Civics Is [Still] Sexy, Sustainable Coastlines Hawaiʻi and Ka Waiwai Ma Mōʻiliʻili. February 17, 2024.
Selection of poetry
Island Earth Speaker Series, Sustainable Coastlines Hawaiʻi and Native Books. December 5, 2024.
"Live Again"
Festival of the Pacific. ʻAha Kūkā: New Media Storytelling. June 12, 2024.
"Marrow Song"
Indigenous Nations Poets Spring Fellows Reading. May 1, 2024.
Selection of fiction
Graduate Student Showcase, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. April 19, 2024.
"Mapped Upon the Knees"
Book launch. March 23, 2024.
Selection of poetry
Honolulu Museum of Art Crosscurrents Guest Artist Docent Tours 2024
"Tomorrow Will"
Poetry & Pāʻina Showcase 2023
Selection of poetry
Graduate Student Showcase 2022
"The Gecko's are on Fire"
Library of Congress, In-Na-Po 2022
Honors
"One Day I will Circle Pūowaina and Imagine"
Honorable Mention –– New Writers Sense of Place Competition 2025
"Live Again"
Academy of American Poets Harold Taylor Prize 2025
"Stitching together fragments of dreams and memories, this prose poem honoring the speaker's grandmother is full of surprising, evocative moments that cut straight through to the heart: "This skin tans in the dark aside the fires of her memories." "Can we pretend your mountain and mine have witnessed each other’s childhood through our hands?"
--Judge Franny Choi
E Hoʻolaukanaka
Drake Beil Creative Writing Award 2025
“E Hoʻolaukanaka” does what all great dramatizations should do—it uses the original material to build a story that stands on its own. The dialogue and details feel authentic, concrete, and intentional, but it's the way the author uses counterpointed characterization that made this piece so wonderful to read. The event is a celebration, and the screenplay feels that way. Plus, I really loved how the form was leveraged in the last three pages."
--Judge Donald Carreira Ching
Backroads, 2015
Robbie Shapard Flash Fiction Prize 1st Place 2025
"In “Backroads, 2015,” the narrator and their mother struggle with a question that many in Hawaiʻi face: stay or go? The story concludes without an answer, at least on the surface, but brevity reveals the break. In the end, the characters need to find their own answers, their own rhythm, in spite of the cost."
--Judge Donald Carreira Ching
ʻOki
Patsy Sumie Saiki Prize Honorable Mention 2025
"The structure and content of “ʻOki” is original, layered, and explicitly and implicitly speaks to the contest’s theme. I appreciated the attention to detail and the focus on dialogue, which read as realistic and true to the ear."
--Judge Donald Carreira Ching
Forthcoming project
Elizabeth Spann Award 2025
Selection of poetry
James Welch Indigenous Poets Prize Honorable Mention 2024
Brackish Hour
Patsy Sumie Saiki Prize 1st Place 2024
"Live Again: Rebuilding Intimacy through Mediation"
Biography Prize Honorable Mention 2024
"The Geckos are on Fire"
Academy of American Poets Harold Taylor Prize UHM 2023
The Tops of Waikiki
Patsy Sumie Saiki Prize 1st Place 2023
"Face Down in the Sand"
Academy of American Poets Harold Taylor Prize UHM 2022
“’Face Down in the Sand’ vignettes the singular experience of a diasporic return to an unfamiliar homeland. Through a bonfire retelling of the Night Marchers legend, we are offered a glimpse into the particular (and peculiar) assurances of family and place tinged with loss—loss of story—loss of memory—loss of home.”
--Lyz Soto
"First We Helumoa"
Best Micro-Short Collaboration Prize 2022
"The winners of the 2021 Best Micro-Short Film Contest are Kalilinoe Detwiler and Ryan Gapelu for their submission First We Helumoa. In this short, a freewriting exercise in Sakamaki Hall gives way to a narrative that likens the exploration and worldbuilding of first drafts to chickens scratching and foraging in the moʻolelo of Kaʻauhelumoa: “You dig and dig and soon you are swallowed by the earth….This land is something, this land will grow tall.” Even as the creative writing student remains in Sakamaki Hall, animation brings the moʻolelo to life. Kaona and metaphor are alive here. “How do we begin to write” is a question that many, if not all, creative writers grapple with, whether it is the beginning of a poem, short story, novel, or memoir. The Creative Writing program in English at UH-Mānoa can be part of the answer!"
--Judges Lisette Flanary and Noʻu Revilla
Huli
Robbie Shapard Short-Short Story Prize 2021
Huli
Patsy Sumie Saiki Prize 3rd Place 2021