A parallel novel entitled Molokai'i Nui Ahina was published in August 2007. The book () features the life and times of Julia Daniels, a Moloka'i pioneer woman of mixed blood, who invites her grandsons Jeff and Ben to spend the summer with her at her ranch. She shares the land with ex-husband Chipper, an alcoholic war hero with an estate bordering the swamp. The boys roam a true paradise consisting of fishponds, waterfalls, and mountains with herds of deer. Jeff meets the kahuna woman who freezes pictures of her enemies, the transsexual who seduces the Chief of Police, the man who referees cock fights in Kaunakakai, the beautiful divorcee who lives in the saddle room, and the prodigal grandfather who returns to woo Julia. All these characters shape Jeff's sensibilities as he learns the secrets of his grandmother's wild past in Honolulu and the intensity of her struggles on the Lonely Isle. Awards and recognition Kirby Wright has been nominated for five Pushcart Prizes and three Best of the Net Awards. He is a past recipient of the Jodi Stutz Memorial Prize in Poetry, the Ann Fields Poetry Prize, the Academy of American Poets Award, the Ad Hoc Flash Fiction Award, two Browning Society Awards for Dramatic Monologue, seven San Diego Book Awards, and Arts Council Silicon Valley Fellowships in Poetry and The Novel. Before the City (), his first book of poetry, took First Place at the San Diego Book Awards. Punahou Blues was a Finalist at the San Diego Book Awards and Honorable Mention at the Hawaii Book Awards. He was recently interviewed on Fox Morning News, Art Rocks internet radio in San Diego, and Hawaiian Kine News out of Las Vegas. He is a frequent guest on 50th State Radio, hosted by Uncle Paul Natto and broadcast live over the Internet from Las Vegas. Wright is a subject of biographical entry in ten editions of Who's Who in America and was listed in the 2001 and 2007 editions of Who's Who in the World. He won a Visiting Writer post at the 2009 International Writers Conference in Hong Kong, where he joined fellow US poet Gary Snyder as well as Pacific Rim colleagues Young-Ha Kim (Korea), Bi Feiyu (China), Atsushi Shiitada (Okinawa), Wena Poon (Singapore), Chen Li (Taiwan), Miguel Syjuco (Philippines) and Janet Charman (New Zealand). He represented the Pacific Rim region of Hawaii at this writers