Public invited to see novelist Tsukiyama
Novelist Gail Tsukiyama from San Francisco will make a public appearance at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Art Auditorium of the University of Hawaii that will feature a reading, a question-and-answer session and book signing.
Tsukiyama’s books reflect her Chinese and Japanese heritage and include “Women of the Silk” and its sequel “The Language of Threads,” and “The Street of a Thousand Blossoms,” a historical epic about two orphaned brothers in Tokyo.
She received the Academy of American Poets Award and the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence.
Her latest novel, “A Hundred Flowers,” set in Mao Zedong’s China, will be out in August.
Tsukiyama will also join local writers at two Celebrate Reading festivals on the neighbor islands: 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Gates Performing Arts Center at Hawaii Preparatory Academy in Waimea with Kate Elliott, Matthew Kaopio, Sue Cowing, Mark Panek, Cathy Song and Jon Osorio; and 8:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Monday at the Pilina Building at the University of Hawaii Maui College with Wing Tek Lum, Patricia Wood, Sue Cowing, Mark Panek and Chris McKinney.
Urban race will test your mind and body
First staged in Honolulu in February 2010, the ultimate urban adventure race returns next month.
Originally known as High Trek Adventure, the redubbed CitySolve Urban Race has been called a mix between a scavenger hunt and a road race. Teams of two or four people will traverse East Honolulu either by foot or bus to solve puzzles and physical challenges in a competition for cash prizes. The winning teams will compete in the national championship in Miami in November.
Teams will try to solve Trivial Pursuit-like questions, math, anagrams and sudoku, and face other challenges such as bowling a strike, building a house of cards, identifying a flavor of ice cream or putting a puzzle together.
The race happens from noon to 5 p.m. May 5, with the start and finish at Dave & Buster’s in the Ward Entertainment Center.
To register online, visit https://2012honoluluurbanrace.eventbrite.com. The fee is $55 per person until 3 p.m. May 4. Race-day registration is $60.
First place wins $300, second $100 and third $50, with the top three teams gaining free entry into the national championship. Prizes will be awarded for best costumes, the top family (with children 17 and under), and the top “tweet” on Twitter sent during the race.
Visit www.citysolveurbanrace.com.
