Kiana Davenport

State: Hawaii

Kiana Davenport is a renowned Hawaiian-American novelist celebrated for her sweeping family sagas rooted in Pacific history and culture. Born in Kalihi, Honolulu, of Native Hawaiian and Caucasian descent, she earned into the Bunting Institute at Harvard‑Radcliffe as a fiction fellow and received a National Endowment for the Arts grant. Her critically acclaimed debut, Shark Dialogues (1994), launched her distinctive style—interweaving multiple generations of Hawaiian life with historical events, supernatural elements, and richly evocative prose. She followed it with Song of the Exile (1999), House of Many Gods (2006), and later works like The Spy Lover and The Soul Ajar, which explore broader diasporic experiences and emotional landscape. Davenport’s short fiction also appears in prestigious anthologies such as The O. Henry Awards, Pushcart Prize Collection, and Best American Short Stories 2000. She resides between Hawaii and Boston and continues to write with a focus on cultural memory and identity.

Genres: Adventure, Contemporary, Historical Fiction

Audiences: Adult, All Ages