Every Grain of Rice: Portraits of Maui’s Japanese Community,” has been selected by the Hawai‘i Book Publishers Association for a 2004 Ka Palapala Po‘okela Award. Accepting the award was author Rita Goldman of Haiku, Maui.

Author Rita Goldman beams moments after hearing that
her book had received top honors at the prestigious
Hawaii Book Publishers' awards banquet.

Goldman noted, “Each year, so many beautiful, passionate books are written in and about Hawai‘i. I am thrilled that the Hawai‘i Book Publishers Association chose to honor our book among them.

"And I do mean ‘our’ book. 

"Every Grain of Rice exists because of the financial and inspirational support of the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center’s board of directors, and because so many individuals and families opened their hearts and homes to this effort, and shared their stories and family photos.”

Officially a project in collaboration with the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center, Goldman spent six years researching and conducting personal interviews to tell the compelling story of Maui’s people of Japanese ancestry through a series of “portraits,” told wherever possible in the individuals’ and families’ own words and family photos.

Proceeds from the sale of the book benefit the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center, and its project to build an Intergenerational Center as a lasting tribute in Hawaii to the Nisei veterans of World War II.

Published by Virginia-based Donning Publishing, “Every Grain of Rice” won the best in category for excellence in “Aloha from beyond Hawai‘i,” which recognizes books with Hawai‘i or Hawaiian themes that are published outside of Hawai‘i state.

The annual awards competition is sponsored by the Hawai‘i Book Publishers Association to recognize and honor the best of the prior year’s Hawaii book publishing.

Rita Goldman,
author of
Every Grain of Rice

"Every Grain of Rice exists because of the financial and inspirational support of the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center’s board of directors, and because so many individuals and families opened their hearts and homes to this effort, and shared their stories and family photos.”