influential to the young Wright because Cooke wrote about his grandmother. Evidence of Wright's love for the written word surfaced at the Star of the Sea Elementary School in Honolulu, where he crafted and performed plays about vampires, pro wrestlers, and secret agents. Kirby Wright won first place in a recital competition for his reading of "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer and also won awards for his original poems. Kirby was transferred to the Punahou School in the 7th Grade and won the short story competition. Despite winning this competition, he felt like an outsider at Punahou School and his experiences at this private institution became fertile material for his coming-of-age novel Punahou Blues. University years Wright attended the University of Colorado for one semester and then transferred to the University of Hawaii at Manoa. At UH he studied under the tutelage of Maxine Hong Kingston and met Kurt Vonnegut as well as Allen Ginsberg. Wright transferred to the University of California at San Diego UC-San Diego, where he took classes taught by the poets Bobbie Louise Hawkins and Jerome Rothenberg. Wright received a B.A. degree in English and American literature of the University of California San Diego. After graduation, wright sold cars for a living at Rancho Olds in Kearny Mesa, then became public relations director for the Carlsbad Inn and San Clemente Cove. Rich but unhappy, he applied to the San Francisco State University and was accepted into their Masters Program in Creative Writing by Anne Rice. While at the San Francisco State University, he took classes taught by Frances Mayes, Daniel J. Langton, Molly Giles, and Harry Mark Petrakis. Kirby Wright earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and was the first student in the history of his university to receive the (Academy of American Poets Award as well as the Browning Society Award for Dramatic Monologue, and the Ann Fields Poetry Prize). Punahou Blues The setting of the book () is Wright's high-school alma mater Punahou School. The novel provides insight into the tumultuous 1960s and '70s in multicultural Honolulu, from the viewpoint of a white (haole) boy narrator searching for his identity in this private school. His rites of passage include losing the girl of his dreams, not living up to his father's great expectations, surviving Killahaole Day, being suspended, sibling rivalry, fighting the school bully, and navigating the tricky waters of interracial dating.