Juliet Kono
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1943 (age 81–82)
Juliet Sanae Kono Lee | |
|---|---|
 Juliet Kono - reading at the Asian American Literature Festival (2017) | |
| Born | Juliet Sanae Asayama 1943 (age 81–82) |
| Other names | Juliet Lee |
| Occupations | poet, author, and instructor |
Juliet Kono (born 1943) is a Hawaiʻian poet and novelist.
Kono was born in 1943 in Hilo, Hawaiʻi to Yoshinori and Atsuko Asayama;[1]: viii her grandparents were immigrants from Japan. One of her earliest memories is from the April 1 tsunami resulting from the 1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake; her family lost their home, which was near the water's edge where Liliʻuokalani Gardens is today, and were forced to live near her grandparents, who operated a small sugar cane plantation in Kaiwiki.[2]: 2–4 She was raised as a Shin Buddhist, and her mother and grandmother were active members of Honpa Hongwanji Hilo Betsuin.[3]
After graduating from Hilo High School, she moved to Honolulu,[2]: 5 where she attended the University of Hawaii, but dropped out and started a family, then worked as a police radio dispatcher before she received her Bachelor (1988) and Master of Arts (1990) degrees from University of Hawaii at Manoa; as an adult student, she earned her BA and graduated with her son.[2]: 5–6 Kono published her first book of poems, Hilo Rains, in 1988, as an undergraduate at Manoa.[4]
Kono is retired and worked as an English instructor at Leeward Community College.[5] She is married to David Lee,[1]: viii who was a fellow dispatcher.[2]: 5
Career
She took up writing while working at a former job as a police dispatcher, publishing as Juliet S. Kono.[2] Kono has also taught at guest workshops for universities and colleges including Wellesley College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[4]
She is considered a member of the Bamboo Ridge group of writers[4] and also is an ordained Buddhist minister.[2]: 5 [3]
