UH alumni contribute to women’s anthology

Ms. Aligned book coverMs. Aligned: Women Writing About Men attempts to represent men through works of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and art created by women. Funded by the SEED IDEAS office of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, the anthology is edited by Pat Matsueda and Sheyene Foster Heller and features the literary and visual art of twenty women.

Contributors to Ms. Aligned include five UH graduates: Naomi Long Eagleson, Adele Ne Jame, Angela Nishimoto, Phyllis Gray Young, and Matsueda. Ne Jame, Nishimoto, and Young received both their undergraduate and master’s degrees at UH Mānoa. Ne Jame is a professor of English at Hawai‘i Pacific University and Nishimoto a lecturer in botany at Leeward CC. Young’s selection, “Joaquim,” is from her master’s thesis, a novel based in part on the research of her husband, Richard Young, professor emeritus in oceanography. Mary Archer, a senior in English at UH Mānoa, also has work in Ms. Aligned: a suite of poems that memorialize the teaching of Robert McHenry, former UH Mānoa English professor.

Laura Lyons (former chair of the UH Mānoa English department and now CLLL interim dean) says of the book’s focus, “We often discuss the problems that attend male writers’ attempts to capture women and feminine consciousness, but little focus has been given when the writing takes the reverse trajectory. For this reason, I expect that this anthology will be of great use to those in Women’s and Gender Studies, Creative Writing, and English courses more generally. In addition, many of the pieces reveal the intersectionality of gender with race and class, so the anthology will also be of use to faculty and students in American and Ethnic Studies programs as well.”

Samrat Upadhyay (UH Mānoa English PhD, 1999) says of the book, “The poems and stories and conversations in Ms. Aligned pay homage to the complex relationships between men and women. The female perspectives presented here—male creations/female creators—dissect, prod, query, challenge, validate, negotiate, and, ultimately, emancipate the gender boundaries that we otherwise take for granted.”

Ms. Aligned is available as a PDF file from Lulu.com for $4.99. In fall 2015, SEED IDEAS awarded the project $2,500 to cover production and editorial expenses.

For more information, please visit the Ms. Aligned website.

University of Hawai‘i Alumni