Kaili Marie

Ka’ili Marie is a mixed-media artist living in Los Angeles. She is the author of the novella Scales, and the book of poems, Ho’owiliwili. She is currently working on her next set of books: a novella, a book of poems, and an illustrated collection of meditations. She is a graduate of the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. See more at @kihawahine

Scales

Pō Kahawai knows what it's like to have that itch beneath her skin that's hard to scratch, that sensation that promises that there is more to the stories her Tūtū has been telling her, and more to the paintings her mom obsessively works on day in and day out, than meets the eye; there's even more to the treacherous mountainside that looms over the cul-de-sac where her family lives. Can Pō peel back the layers of silence and myth that have built up in her home since forever and reveal the truth?

Ho'owiliwili

A collection of poems centered on Kamanu Pa'a, a young Hawaiian girl growing up in Honolulu. Ho'owiliwili, to swirl or to circle symbolizes the unfurling of Manu's womanhood and ultimate discovery of her true self.

→ Link to Book

Coming soon...

An amorphous reflection of a modern-day mo’owahine. In Hawaiian culture, a mo’owahine is a mythological protector of sacred water sources - a lizard woman. Kiha - named for the pool she protects ventures from the safety of her waters and her people into unknown cityscapes. 🦎 The writings are meditations from her internal rumination, as she examines her past trailing, her present coiling, and her future unfurling.