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Kiana Davenport

Biography

Kiana Davenport

Kiana Davenport is descended from a full-blooded Native Hawaiian mother, and a Caucasian father from Talladega, Alabama. Her father, Braxton Bragg Davenport, was a sailor in the U.S. Navy, stationed at Pearl Harbor, when he fell in love with her mother, Emma Kealoha Awaawa Kanoho Houghtailing. On her mother's side, Kiana traces her ancestry back to the first Polynesian settlers to the Hawaiian Islands who arrived almost two thousand years ago from Tahiti and the Tuamotu's. On her father's side, she traces her ancestry to John Davenport, the puritan clergyman who co-founded the American colony of New Haven, Connecticut in 1638.

Kiana is the author of the internationally bestselling novels: SHARK DIALOGUES, SONG OF THE EXILE, HOUSE OF MANY GODS, and THE SPY LOVER. She is also the author of the collections HOUSE OF SKIN PRIZE-WINNING STORIES and CANNIBAL NIGHTS, PACIFIC STORIES Volume II. Both have been Kindle bestsellers. She has just published her third collection, OPIUM DREAMS, PACIFIC STORIES, VOLUME III.

A graduate of the University of Hawaii, Kiana has been a Bunting Fellow at Harvard University, a Visiting Writer at Wesleyan University, and a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant. Her short stories have won numerous O. Henry Awards, Pushcart Prizes, and the Best American Short Story Award, 2000. Her novels and short stories have been translated into twenty-one languages. She lives on the Big island in Hawaii.

Kiana Davenport

Books by Kiana Davenport