Hawaiian Creole English (HCE)

Stephen Sumida was one of the first contributors to local literature on Asian American literature in Hawai'i. Another local literature writer is Darrell Lum. Bamboo Ridge Press published a handful of journals by Lum and Sumida about local literature and writings in Pidgin. Initially HCE was not seen as an academic or artistic expression. It was mostly seen in popular songs and comic entertainment. After World War II, local writers started to rely more on pidgin to convey their messages. HCE is also used in drama. The University of Hawai'i at Manoa has the only drama department that is dedicated to producing local plays. Early on in literature and dialogs used, the orthography used was in closer relation to Standard English. Slowly over time writers started using more phonetic spelled versions of the pidgin words and syntax of pidgin.

http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Hawaiian_creole_English

In recent years, writers from Hawai’i have written poems, short stories, and other works in Pidgin. This list included well-known Hawai’i authors such as Kent Bowman, James Grant Benton, Lois-Ann Yamanaka and Lee Tonouchi. A Pidgin translation of the New Testament (called Da Jesus Book) has also been created, as has an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, or What You Will, titled in Pidgin "Twelf' Night, or Whateva."

Several theater companies in Hawai’i produce plays written and performed in Pidgin. The most notable of these companies is Kumu Kahua Theater.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Pidgin

LEE TONOUCHI

A little of his biography:

http://www.transitionhawaii.com/pathways/arts_and_communications/lee_tonouchi

Article:

Da Pidgin Guerrilla : Does the fate of Hawaiian Creole English lie in the hands of Lee Tonouchi?

http://www.honoluluweekly.com/archives/coverstory%20%202002/11-13-02%20Pidgin/11-13-02%20Pidgin.html

COLLOQUIUM ON "CREOLE LITERATURE”

http://www.hawaii.edu/spcl03/abstracts-literature.htm

A PARADISE LOST: MAPPING CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE FROM HAWAI’I

By Claudia Rapp

‘This study is the first to situate contemporary literature from Hawai’i in a comprehensive framework of current theoretical background, comparative surveys (…), and Hawaii’s literary history. From a German or even a European perspective, it is the first Ph. D. dissertation to deal with Hawaii’s literary production at all. Its main thesis is that the literature resulting from the islands’ history, the pervasive outside representation, and the unique multicultural setup of the population is fundamentally a Local one, place-bound, ethnicity-aware, expressed in a variety of linguistic choices. Contemporary literature from Hawai’i is an exploration of Local identity, providing a multitude of answers to the question “What is a Hawaiian?”(…)’

http://www.ub.uni-konstanz.de/kops/volltexte/2007/3265/pdf/Rapp_Diss.pdf