Brandy Nālani McDougall

From the ahupua¿a of A¿apueo in Kula, Maui, Brandy N¿lani McDougall (Kanaka ¿¿iwi, she/her/¿o ia) is the author of two poetry collections, The Salt-Wind, Ka Makani Pa¿akai (2008) and ¿¿ina H¿nau, Birth Land (2023). A Ford and Mellon-Hawai¿i fellow, her critical monograph Finding Meaning: Kaona and Contemporary Hawaiian Literature (University of Arizona Press, 2016) is the first extensive study of contemporary Hawaiian literature and was the winner of the Beatrice Medicine Award in 2017. She is the director of the M¿noa Center for Humanities and Civic Engagement and an Associate Professor of American Studies (specializing in Indigenous studies) at University of Hawai'i at M¿noa. She is the Hawai¿i Poet Laureate for 2023-2025. She lives with her keiki in Kalaep¿haku, Honolulu, in the ahupua¿a of Waik¿k¿ on O¿ahu.