O’ahu Writers Retreat at Mokule’ia

01/03/2025

Retreat alum Rachel Funk Heller has published her first mystery novel. “The Eclipse Killer” is the first in a four-part series, “The Forensic Astrology Files.” Set in San Francisco, the series features a homicide investigator working with an astrologer. The stories' intricate plots keep you guessing until the last page. Rachel will be in SF in early Feb for readings! More details at rachelfunkheller.com

12/20/2024

E komo mai! The website is updated, the faculty for morning workshops is confirmed: Grant Faulkner (flash fiction & nonfiction), Susan Ito (memoir & personal essays) Jasmin Iolani Hakes (fiction & advocacy). And there's so much more--art, songwriting, poetry, nature. Check out the site! Registration begins Jan. 15.

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11/26/2024

Announcing the lineup for 2025: Grant Faulkner (Flash First Person Essays), Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes (Fiction), Susan Ito (Memoir). And lots more wonderfully creative stuff to come. Save the date: April 21-27. And here is the sunrise at Mokuleia just a few days ago.

11/13/2024

Aloha, writers. If you are on island (or on another island), consider joining us at Camp Mokule‘ia for a mini-retreat on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. Day 1 is generative writing--little lessons and prompts to get you writing much richer descriptive passages, with a focus on character and scene. Special session on nature with Karla Brundage. Day 2 is all about revising your work and enhancing your voice.

Workshops, classes and coaching for serious writers, held at locations ideal for the imagination and the craft

10/31/2024

If you are in the Bay Area...

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10/25/2024

Aloha, writers. Just sending a little news your way from me. I am busy writing a book proposal for a book on the writing life. I hope I'll be able to share some pages with you in April. (Sneak preview!) Otherwise, I am looking forward to a meeting of my poetry group tomorrow and figuring out what essay to write after my recent trip to Germany. See pix. What are YOU writing?

10/20/2024

Just reminding you about this invitation to submit from F(r)iction, a triannual art and literature journal that publishes a vibrant mix of speculative work and literary fiction.
Categories Accepted
• Short stories: 1,001 – 7,500 words
• Creative nonfiction: up to 6,500 words
• Flash fiction: (up to three pieces in the same document) up to 1,000 words per piece
• Poetry: (up to five poems in the same document) up the three pages per poem

I've just been invited to solicit submissions for the literary journal *f(r)fiction*. An upcoming issue is devoted to the theme of Ocean, and the editors are eager to hear from new writers. One of them has reached out and has created a pipeline that allows us (yes, us) to submit for free. You can find information on the website (https://frictionlit.org/upcomingthemes/), and I'm putting together a fact sheet that I can send you. Email connie [at] sinandsyntax [dot] com and I'll forward the fact sheet and the link for submissions.

In the meantime, here's what they say about the Ocean issue:

Covering 71 percent of the Earth’s surface, the ocean directly and constantly impacts our lives in ways we see and ways we don’t. From epic sea squalls and hurricanes and floods, to quiet currents that maintain the weather and house thousands of creatures, large and small, the seas wield immense power over climate and the lives of humankind. Yet, there’s so much we don’t know about the vast, abyssal territories of darkness, high pressure, and incredible cold and heat that surround us, impenetrable (or extremely dangerous) to landlubbers. In F(r)iction’s Ocean issue, we seek stories, poetry, and nonfiction about underwater cities, rising seas, harrowing travels, creation, destruction, thirst, and whales. Give us space whales! Tell us about a galaxy of oceans contained in a holographic fishtank, preach the gospel of Poseidon, or win millions with the help of a chance-taking cephalopod. The opportunities for observant and original writing are as boundless as expansive as the briny deep. Note: Works about Great Lakes, ponds, and other watery wonders will also be lovingly considered.

10/14/2024

On Saturday, Nov. 2, I will be onstage & in conversation with MacArthur "genius" award-winner Patrick Makuakane. We'll be talking hula, Hawai‘i, personal history, and past as present, and I'll make sure we go in surprise directions. Libations and live music start at 5:30, the program starts at 7. Join us at St. Teresa's Church, as part of the Potrero Hill Archives Project. E komo mai.

09/26/2024

I've just been invited to solicit submissions for the literary journal *f(r)fiction*. An upcoming issue is devoted to the theme of Ocean, and the editors are eager to hear from new writers. One of them has reached out and has created a pipeline that allows us (yes, us) to submit for free. You can find information on the website (https://frictionlit.org/upcomingthemes/), and I'm putting together a fact sheet that I can send you. Email connie [at] sinandsyntax [dot] com and I'll forward the fact sheet and the link for submissions.

In the meantime, here's what they say about the Ocean issue:

Covering 71 percent of the Earth’s surface, the ocean directly and constantly impacts our lives in ways we see and ways we don’t. From epic sea squalls and hurricanes and floods, to quiet currents that maintain the weather and house thousands of creatures, large and small, the seas wield immense power over climate and the lives of humankind. Yet, there’s so much we don’t know about the vast, abyssal territories of darkness, high pressure, and incredible cold and heat that surround us, impenetrable (or extremely dangerous) to landlubbers. In F(r)iction’s Ocean issue, we seek stories, poetry, and nonfiction about underwater cities, rising seas, harrowing travels, creation, destruction, thirst, and whales. Give us space whales! Tell us about a galaxy of oceans contained in a holographic fishtank, preach the gospel of Poseidon, or win millions with the help of a chance-taking cephalopod. The opportunities for observant and original writing are as boundless as expansive as the briny deep. Note: Works about Great Lakes, ponds, and other watery wonders will also be lovingly considered.

09/17/2024

I'm thrilled to announce the dates for 2025: April 21 to April 27. This means we start the retreat the day after Easter. If you come a day early we'll have to find a way to celebrate together. I realize this photo is a bit somber, but it's one of my favorites, taken by Malcolm Ryder from Kaukonahua Road, which snakes down from Schofield Barracks to Mokule’ia.

09/09/2024

09/09/2024

Sorry to be so slow to announce dates for the next retreat. The staff at the Camp has been on vacation, and there are some changes that will affect our week in spring. But it will be April or May. In the meantime, there will be a mini-retreat at Camp Mokuleʻia on Saturday, Nov. 30 and Sunday, Dec. 1. Saturday is generative writing, Sunday (a half day) is for polishing. More details and a link for November registration soon!

08/13/2024

You heard it here first: I am launching a new IG account on Sept. 1. It will be all about the writing life--my musings, muses, favorite books, favorite writing prompts, favorite resources, sources of inspiration, etc. Oh, and advice. Lots of it. Follow me now and be an early adapter! The first teaser will go up tomorrow.

7 Followers, 44 Following, 0 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Constance Hale ()

07/25/2024

I was a guest teacher in a class in Beijing yesterday (or rather earlier, way earlier today, thinking time zones). The young women were all in a Digital Culture and Gender class taught by my former radio professor William Drummond. Their questions were achingly honest. What they wanted most were strategies about how to deal with the (often unconscious) sexism of professors and peers. I gave them *my* stories and my strategies and told them that, ultimately they need to go outward to find role models and go inward to boost their own confidence, pride, and sense of power.

I am reminded of the work of Hung Liu, featured here with one of her portraits.

I urged them to read recent news and opinion pieces about Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, and Kamala Harris--many of which I've posted here in the last few days. Then they let me know that they did not have access to NY Times or WashPo stories. Duh. That was sobering. Of course they don't. But thankfully they have a professor who can download those stories for them.

06/20/2024

What's the line between journalism and PR? Um, I think I just crossed it. LOL. Here is a piece about the next big project I'm helping to pull off.

The historic and often maligned neighborhood of West Oakland is set to host a captivating art and advocacy event that calls attention to the neighborhood’s rich but endangered cultural heritage. Curated to highlight the significance of art in amplifying voices and economic vibrancy,

06/20/2024

This Talk of the Town gave me a reminiscence of when my mom & I were staying in a little apartment on the Ile de la Cite (1999) and I’d take a morning run to the Louvre and grab a cafe au lait at Cafe Marly. (The Marly Court is mentioned in the piece, which triggered the memory, along with general thoughts about muscles & museums. Piece also mentions one of my favorite middle-grade books, “From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.”

To mark the upcoming Olympics, Paris’s grandest museum has invited exercisers to get down among the marble caryatids.

05/03/2024

Donovan Kuhio Colleps was a participant in the third or fourth writers retreat. He blew us away then, and it looks like he's getting the national attention he deserves.

I cannot draw a line beyond your names,