In my work with middle-and secondary-school preservice language arts teachers, I am always looking for quality adolescent literature that I can share with them. An additional goal in my teaching is to familiarize my students with literature that is representative of America's rich ethnic and regional diversity. Through these combined goals, I came to know author Graham Salisbury. I am also a traveler, a tourist; and in 1994, I made my first trip to Hawaii. This trip was significant to me for two reasons: on a personal level, I became hopelessly enamored of Hawaii and its physical beauty; on a professional level, I realized that I knew virtually nothing about Hawaii's sociocultural and literary histories. Even though I hoped to introduce my students to a wide array of cultural perspectives in literature, I knew no works about Hawaii written by authors from Hawaii. With the help of a librarian in the Young Adult Section of the Hawaii State Library, I found several titles that I later wrote about in an article for The ALAN Review : " Voices of Hawaii in Literature for Adolescents: Getting Past Pineapples and Paradise ." Among the books I discussed was Graham Salisbury's Blue Skin of the Sea. He sent me a letter in response to that article, and we struck up a correspondence. I wanted to know more about his writing and his history with Hawaii, so I proposed an interview. He accepted, and for approximately one month we exchanged questions and answers via e-mail. As we talked electronically, I learned more about Graham (or Sandy, the nickname he goes by). He is a descendant of missionaries in the Hawaiian Islands, the first of whom arrived in 1820, and whose long-term presence there has been alternately praised and condemned. Although he is currently a "Mainlander," living in Portland, Oregon, where he manages an historic office building, he grew up on the islands of Oahu and Hawaii and maintains family connections there. Graham Salisbury's writing about the struggles and conflicts of boyhood is highly engaging-he is a good storyteller. His first book for adolescents, Blue Skin of the Sea , explores the coming-of-age experiences of two boys on the Big Island of Hawaii in the 1950s and 1960s. Under the Blood-Red Sun , his second book, takes readers into one boy's life on Oahu in the time just prior to and immediately following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Both deservedly have received numerous national awards, and his third book, Shark Bait , has a scheduled publication date of fall 1997. There are many voices of Hawaii, carried along distinct, merging, or intersecting currents. Graham Salisbury is one of those voices, and he writes about Hawaii across the distances of time and space while thoughtfully addressing concerns that continue to impact the lives of young people. The following interview is taken from my electronic conversations with the author. Tell me about the process of writing Blue Skin of the Sea Blue Skin of the Sea-of looking back at the Big Island during that time period and in creating the main characte...
