He finally finished it while he was living in the Bay Area. He would move several times while he was writing the novel, incorporating his experiences in it. It was during this time that he started working on his debut novel. It was in Washington while he was working for an NGO that he met his wife with whom he was sharing an office. As such, most of his early thirties and twenties were spent doing policy work and volunteer work which finally ended with him working in Washington DC. Kawai Strong Washburn then moved to New York to pursue his graduate studies in policy work. He then moved to Portland where he got involved teaching alternative high school. He went overseas and for a time worked in Guatemala for a social service agency and volunteer teacher.

He believed that it was critical that he makes an impact in his community or something worthwhile rather than write code for printer drivers for the likes of Tektronix. He had spent much time in his community and knew that there were a lot of inequalities, which did not sit well with him. As an undergraduate student, he studied technology but he graduated from college in 2002 just at the tail end of the bursting of the dot com bubble. Washburn took quite the non-conventional path to become an author. These influences would provide a mishmash of superstitions, legends, and stories that he would incorporate in his debut novel “Sharks in the Time of Saviors.” Growing up, he was exposed to all manner of folklore and myths from many sources whether it was the things they learned in Hawaiian studies in school or the stories they would tell each other as kids on the playing ground. With its hundreds of nationalities and ethnicities, and a strong mix of traditions and cultural references, it has been a significant influence in his writing.

Washburn has asserted that life in Hawaii was incredibly formative and enriching, as it was so much different from anything he has ever experienced since then.

He was born on the Hamakua Coast, in the small town of Honoka’a and lived there until his teenage years when he moved to Portland on the mainland. Washburn was born on the Hamakua Coast on Hawaii’s Big Island and was the Bread Loaf Work-Study scholar in 2015 and a Tin House Summer Scholar in 2015. Kawai Strong Washburn is a literary fiction author from Hawaii whose work has been featured in “Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading,” “McSweeney’s,” and “Best American Nonrequired Reading” among many other outlets.

Kawai strong washburn