Pacific Raven Press: Where Writing Transforms
Pacific Raven Press, LLC, is an independent press founded in 2008. Since its inception, Pacific Raven has published numerous book titles in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. International in scope, our works illuminate themes of the Americas, Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and beyond.
Our press welcomes submissions of quality manuscripts that motivate change and reflection, support diversity, and envision and promote harmony and balance to the world. We encourage thoughtful, respectful attitudes for diverse cultures and the protection of the environment.
Our vision is to be a leader in innovative perspectives through the written word. We create a space and place where writing inspires, heals, transforms, and promotes varying genres of communication and a balanced philosophical platform.We aim to publish writers with original ideas, subjects, and perspectives that support the notions of responsible freedom and the common good.
Meet the founder: Kathryn Waddell Takara, Professor Emerita
Pacific Raven Press was founded by Kathryn Waddell Takara, PhD, a Hawai`i based scholar, performance artist, and author of nine books of poetry, a biography, and a collection of oral histories. The Before Columbus Foundation honored her in 2010 with the American Book Award. She has appeared on television and in documentary films, and frequently has given media and publication interviews. She publishes articles on culture, most recently in The Black Chicago Renaissance and Black Hollywood Unchained.
Kathryn Takara’s has been a mover and shaker with a passion for justice since her arrival in Hawai’i in 1968. Her pioneering research and publications on African Americans in Hawai’i has catapulted her into national recognition to be a groundbreaking authority, consultant, and scholarly reviewer for numerous book and media projects. Takara was the first poet in Hawai’i to incorporate dance and musicians in her unique poetry performances in the 1970s-80s.
Starting in 1970s, Takara can be credited for bringing the first reggae groups to Hawai’i, and during the 1980s she invited Black national, outstanding Civil Rights activists to the University of Hawaii and community, hosting national conferences on race, class, and creativity. She has since been nominated for the Hawai’i State Poet Laureate and has transformed many groundbreaking research into oral histories and articles about Blacks in Hawai’i, including the inventor Alice Augusta Ball and former Civil Rights Activist and Poet Frank Marshall Davis.