Acclaimed Poet and Hawai'i Scholar Jamaica Osorio

Pacific University's Visiting Writer's Series presents Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, a three-time national poetry champion and internationally acclaimed author. 

Time: 7:00pm on Thursday, April 16, 2026

Location:  Marsh Hall Auditorium (Room 216) on the Forest Grove Campus

A Kānaka Maoli wahine artist and activist, Jamaica Osorio has a Ph.D. in English Hawaiian literature from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, where she is now Associate Professor of Indigenous and Native Hawaiian Politics.  She is a proud past Kaiāpuni student, Ford fellow, and a graduate of Kamehameha Schools, Stanford University (BA), and New York University (MA).

Her book Remembering our Intimacies: Moʻolelo, Aloha ʻĀina was published by the University of Minnesota Press. She is a featured author in Imua, Move Forward a collection of poets of Hawai'i edited by Malia Guerrero and published by New Ground Books at Pacific University Press.

Aloha is the way I say:
I've pulled mountains out of the sea
to bring forth the world you deserve.
--Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio

This lecture is free and open to the public.  Books will be for sale at the event.

Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio is a leader in the newest generation of Indigenous scholars articulating what it means to be Indigenous (in her case, Kanaka—Hawaiian) in the contemporary world.

--Michael David Kaulana Ing

More about Jamaica Osorio.

Sponsored by the Pacific University Visiting Writers Series, the College of Undergraduate Studies, the Departments of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice, the Office of Strategic Initiatives, and the Pacific University Press.