MĀNOA Staff
he/him
S. Shankar is a novelist, literary and cultural critic, and translator. He is Professor in the Department of English at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa; Editor of Mānoa journal; and a former member of the Board of External Experts appointed to advise the Swedish Academy in the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Literature (2022-2025). Shankar’s most recent book is his third novel Ghost in the Tamarind, published in September 2017. His critical work THE COST OF LIVING: POVERTY ABOLITION AND CULTURAL FICTIONS OF THE POOR is forthcoming from Duke University Press.
she/her
Amanda Galvan Huynh is a Chicana writer and educator from Texas. She is the author of Where My Umbilical is Buried (2023), a chapbook, Songs of Brujería and Co-Editor of Of Color: Poets’ Ways of Making: An Anthology of Essays on Transformative Poetics (2019). Amanda earned her PhD in English at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, MFA in Poetry at Old Dominion University, BA in English at the University of Texas at Arlington, and BA in Biology at the University of Texas at Dallas. Currently, she is working on a hybrid memoir.
David Murray is a local graduate student in Composition & Rhetoric, with an academic history in media studies. Fascinated by the power of the written and spoken word, David’s work aims to interrogate and map the rhetorical strategies used by political actors, both present and historical, with a particular emphasis on fascist, autocratic, and authoritarian rhetorics. Outside of academia, David is an obsessive of the horror genre in its myriad mediums and sub-genres. Working with Mānoa, David intends to be in service of his academic and literary community while also refining his editorial skills for future professional endeavors.
she/her
Michaela Gillan is an undergraduate student in Information & Computer Sciences on the Creative Computational Media track, with a minor in English, at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Shaped by her upbringing in the Philippines and her experiences across multiple cultures through travel, her work aims to bridge technology and storytelling by exploring how digital media can amplify diverse cultural narratives. She combines her technical training with a passion for literature and community engagement, using her time at Mānoa journal to deepen her understanding of publishing processes, website development, and multicultural storytelling that honors the complexities of diasporic and transnational identities.
Summer 2026 Staff
Timmy Minh Hiền Trần
…is a Local Vietnamese storyteller and poet. Born and raised in Honolulu, Trần grew up on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi having memories rooted under the shade of Lēʻahi. Trần is the author of Nước Mía (2023), winner of the Young Writers of Hawaiʻi Award and published in Ānuenue Review issue III. His screenplay, Deep End (2024), won the Abernethy Screenwriting Competition and the Drake Beil Prize. Trần values love and levity in his practices, often focused within human experiences and fairytales. Trần was educated at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, graduated with BAs in Cinema and English.
Kaitlyn Choy
…is a rising fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in English with a concentration in composition and rhetoric. She plans to add Psychology as a second major, combining her knowledge to further explore how meaning is constructed across culture, language, and lived experience, while examining how these factors inform the creation and diverse interpretations of storytelling. Kaitlyn aims to use the opportunities provided through her position as a member of the summer staff at Mānoa Journal to deepen her understanding of the publishing process and gain insight into the possibility of editorial work as a professional aspiration.
Senuah J. Benjamin
…is a second year student at UH Mānoa. He will be graduating next year with a degree in English. Originally from the US Virgin Islands, he took part in the National Student Exchange program for a year in Hawaiʻi, and really liked it and decided to stay. He’s definitely a little bit old since he took some time off, but he’s three years into his undergraduate degree, and he’s happy he’s being given the opportunity to pursue his studies.
Violet Hiltbrand
…is a third-year English major from Oahu’s North Shore. As a member of this summer’s staff, she hopes to broaden her skills as a writer, as well as become more engaged with the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s English and writing community. Her academic interests focus on historical literature and poetry. Growing up and living in Hawai‘i influence much of her creative work. Taking inspiration from Hawai‘i’s traditions of story telling, with connections to its natural world. Outside her studies, she is a dedicated equestrian athlete whose passions include polo and show jumping.
Stephanie Zhang
…is a Hawai‘i-born Cantonese writer and undergraduate student in English and Second Language Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Her literary research explores the crossroads of gender, sexuality, power, and representation across a wide range of modern literature and visual media. As a bilingual speaker of English and Cantonese, Zhang is also interested in language as a site of identity formation, community-building, and cultural expression. Her research in Second Language Studies focuses on bilingualism, code-switching, and the Complementarity Principle. Across both her scholarly and creative work, she is drawn to questions of transformation, curiosity, and personhood.
Kai Julian
…is an undergraduate student at UH Mānoa majoring in English. She already earned her Master’s in Financial Accounting from Rutgers University and worked in accounting, finance, and data management. She also undertook freelance writing projects. She decided to return to school to refine her writing skills in hopes of becoming a published author. Her diverse academic and professional background guides her writing. Julian leverages both of her analytical and creative skills for her craft. Julian’s creative works are mainly focused on fiction and she is particularly interested in the ways fiction bridges the everyday mundane and the whimsical world.
Previous MĀNOA Staff
2024
Staff | Carson Compos, Gabriella Contratto, Alexa Cho (Fall)
Staff | Audrey Beaton, Anna Kalabukhova, Precy Pananganan, and Chandanie Somwaru (Spring)
Abernethy Fellows | Audrey Beaton, Anna Kalabukhova, and Chandanie Somwaru
2023
Editor | Craig Santos Perez (Spring)
Editor | S. Shankar (Fall)
Managing Editor | Amanda Galvan Huynh (Fall)
Staff | Audrey Beaton and Chandanie Somwaru (Fall)
Abernethy Fellows | Audrey Beaton and Chandanie Somwaru (Fall)
2022
Editor | Frank Stewart
Managing Editor | Pat Matsueda
Associate Editor | Noah Perales-Estoesta
Staff | Li Shan Chan and Quinn White
Abernethy Fellow | Li Shan Chan
Designer and Art Editor | Barbara Pope
2021
Editor | Frank Stewart
Managing Editor | Pat Matsueda
Associate Editor | Noah Perales-Estoesta
Designer and Art Editor | Barbara Pope
2020
Editor | Frank Stewart
Guest Editors | Alok Bhalla and Ming Di
Managing Editor | Pat Matsueda
Associate Editor | Noah Perales-Estoesta
Staff | Silvana Mae Bautista
Designer and Art Editor | Barbara Pope
2019
Editor | Frank Stewart
Guest Editors | Alok Bhalla, Ming Di, and Tony Barnstone
Managing Editor | Pat Matsueda
Associate Editor | Noah Perales-Estoesta
Staff | Silvana Mae Bautista and Soumya Rachel Shailendra
Designer and Art Editor | Barbara Pope