About Us
Established in 2009, Mixing Innovative Arts (MIA) Honolulu is one of the city's longest-standing reading series for Hawai'i writers. We bring both academic and non-academic, published and unpublished writers together at our events, thereby giving all writers a platform to share their work before a live audience. We also serve as a venue for visiting writers, oral storytellers, and other artists such as filmmakers, photographers, and musicians. For our audiences, we offer the chance to slow down, unplug from the day, and connect with people through stories, poetry, and art. With a few exceptions, we aim to host monthly events that are free and open to the public.
Who We Are
Co-organizer 2018-present
Spencer Yim Kealamakia is a writer and editor originally from Hilo. A graduate of the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa English Department and the MFA Writing Program at UNC Greensboro, Spencer has published fiction in literary journals such as The Greensboro Review, Hawai‘i Review, and Anderbo. He’s also written essays about Hawai‘i history, people, and the arts for HAWAII Magazine, Honolulu Civil Beat, Nella Media Group, and Hana Hou! Magazine. He’s currently working on several book projects, and since June 2018, he’s served as a co-organizer for MIA Honolulu.
Co-organizer 2018-present
Emily A. Benton is a graduate of the MFA Writing Program at UNC Greensboro. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in journals such as Hawai’i Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, Southern Poetry Review, Bamboo Ridge, and ZYZZYVA. As an editor, she’s worked on publications for University of Hawai’i Press, The Greensboro Review, and storySouth. She has also contributed nonfiction to outlets such as FLUX Hawai’i, Honolulu Civil Beat, The Charlotte Observer, and HONOLULU Magazine. Originally from Tennessee, she lived and worked in Hawai’i full-time from 2012 to 2020. She now splits her time between Hawai’i and Georgia.
Organizer 2014-2018
Joseph Han was born in Seoul, South Korea. He is the author of Uncrossable: Stories (YesYes Books, forthcoming in March 2020), as well as a poetry collection, Cupping (The Operating System, forthcoming 2020). His fiction, poetry, and nonfiction have appeared in Joyland Magazine, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Little Fiction, wildness, and Entropy. He has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Hawaiʻi-Mānoa.
Founder and Organizer 2009-2014
Jaimie Gusman lives and works as a writer, teacher, and potter in Kaʻaʻawa. Her first book, Anyjar, was published in 2017 by Black Radish Books. She is a recipient of the Ian MacMillan Prize (2012) and the Rita Dove Poetry Award (2015). She also has three chapbooks: Gertrude's Attic (Vagabond Press, 2012), The Anyjar (Highway 101 Press, 2011), and One Petal Row (Tinfish Press, 2011). Gusman’s work can be found in the anthologies Jack London is Dead (Tinfish Press 20 2013), All We Can Hold: Poems of Motherhood (Sagehill Press, 2015) and The End Of The World Project (Moria Books, 2019). She is the founder of Mixing Innovative Arts reading series in Honolulu, holds a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Hawaii, and an MFA in Poetry from the University of Washington.