Mauna Kea: A Novel of Hawai‘i

An award-winning novelist and acclaimedwriting teacher, Tom Peek lived his early life on Minnesota’s Upper MississippiRiver. After hitchhiking by boat through the South Seas, he settled on HawaiʻiIsland three decades ago. There he’s been, among other things, an astronomy andmountain guide on Mauna Kea, an eruption ranger and exhibit writer on Kilauea,and an insider participant in the efforts to protect both sacred volcanoes. Inpraising his award-winning debut novel, Daughters of Fire, MaileMeyer, founder of Honolulu’s Native Books/Nā Mea Hawai‘i, said, “Peek’sunderstanding of place, culture, and current issues is deep and respectfulwithout being heavy-handed.” The Contemporary Pacific Journal calledhim “a storyteller extraordinaire, cut from an older cloth seldom seen today.”  Illustrator John D. Dawson was raised in San Diego and has lived on Hawai‘i Island for three decades. A graduate of the Art Center School, Los Angeles, now the ArtCenter College of Design, Dawson has illustrated books for national publishers as well as stamps for the US Postal Service, including its entire "Nature of America" series. He’s also done commissions for the United Nations, National Park Service, National Geographic Society, National Wildlife Federation, and Audubon Society. His fine art watercolors and acrylics are represented by the Volcano Art Center gallery in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park.

"In Mauna Kea, Hawaiʻi-based author Tom Peek develops his craft far beyond his first novel, the award-winning Daughters of Fire. Peek's down-to-earth storytelling voice speaks to a broad audience—national, global, and local—nosmall feat. His compelling and deftly woven plot lines, keen sense of pacing, and finely-etched, authentic characters combine to bring to lifethe world of the Mauna Kea Protectors Movement while also offering a particularly intimate perspective on those who trace their ancestry to this sacred mountain."—Susan Najita, Associate Professor of Literature and Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies, University of Michigan