{"id":141477,"date":"2021-05-13T15:41:46","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T01:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=141477"},"modified":"2021-05-13T15:41:46","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T01:41:46","slug":"perez-nautilus-book-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/05\/13\/perez-nautilus-book-award\/","title":{"rendered":"English professor honored for climate poetry, environmental leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"Perez
Craig Santos Perez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Activism comes in many forms and for Craig Santos Perez<\/strong> that form is poetry. The University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Mānoa<\/a> professor pens award-winning poems that express his fear and frustration from global issues such as climate change, toxic waste and human violence. In 2020, Perez, an Indigenous Chamorro published Habitat Threshold<\/em>, a book filled with poetry that addresses the dark aftermath of ecological colonialism in Â鶹´«Ã½,<\/span> Guam, and the larger Pacific.<\/p>\n

In May 2021, Perez\u2019 book earned the prestigious gold Nautilus Book Award<\/a> which honors published works about the environment and social justice.<\/p>\n

\"Habitat<\/p>\n

“I feel very fortunate to receive this recognition, which was a bright moment during the pandemic,” he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that very blend of poetry and environmental justice that Perez infuses into his courses at UH<\/abbr>. For the past 10 years he has taught creative writing, environmental poetry and Pacific Islander literature in the English department<\/a> at UH<\/abbr> Mānoa.<\/p>\n

“My goal is to inspire my students to write and care about ecological issues and climate change…I love teaching at UH<\/abbr> because of our diverse student body and our emphasis on environmental and place-based learning,” Perez said.<\/p>\n

This spring, Perez racked up yet another accolade. He landed a spot on the 2021 “Grist 50,”<\/a> an annual list of 50 emerging leaders in climate, sustainability and equity who are creating change across the nation. Grist, a leading climate media organization, selected Perez out of a pool of 1,000 nominees. The coveted list includes an artificial intelligence guru who develops robots to sort recyclables and a Hip hop artist recording tracks to raise awareness about flood-prone South Carolina\u2019s battles with climate change.<\/p>\n

In 2022, the UH<\/abbr> Press<\/a> is set to publish an anthology of Pacific Islander Eco-Literature that Perez is co-editing. His words, whether composed free style, haiku or prose are what he considers a megaphone urging society to listen and fight for change.<\/p>\n

This work is an example of UH<\/abbr> Mānoa\u2019s goal of Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), and Building a Sustainable and Resilient Campus Environment: Within the Global Sustainability and Climate Resilience Movement<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>)—two of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Â鶹´«Ã½ (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), updated in December 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Craig Santos Perez landed a spot on climate change leadership list, Grist 50 and earned a Nautilus Book Award for his published works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1471,342,598,1467,1468,9,339],"class_list":["post-141477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-college-of-arts-languages-and-letters","tag-english","tag-faculty-recognition","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-sustainable-and-resilient-campus-environment","tag-uh-manoa","tag-uh-press","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141477"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141484,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141477\/revisions\/141484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}