T Kira Māhealani Madden
Assistant Professor of Literature and Creative Writing
T Kira Mahealani Madden (she/her) is a diasporic Kanaka 'Oiwi (Native Hawaiian) writer and author of the novel Whidbey, forthcoming with Mariner in winter 2026. Her memoir, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, was named a New York Times Editors' Choice, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, and the Lambda Literary Award. Madden is the founding editor of No Tokens, a magazine of literature and art, and has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Hedgebrook, Tin House, MacDowell, and Yaddo. Winner of the 2021 Judith A. Markowitz Award, Madden’s work has appeared in Harper’s, New York Magazine, Bon Appétit, Vogue, and others. She served as the 2024 Distinguished Writer in Residence at University of Hawai'i at Manoa and teaches incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals.
Recent Courses Taught
Introductory Poetry and Fiction Workshop
Creative Non-Fiction Workshop
Distinctions
- Keynote Speaker, Ola i ka wai, Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) Symposium of the Five Colleges, 2025
- National Book Critics Circle Award, John Leonard Prize finalist (Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls), 2020
- MacDowell Fellowship, 2014, 2016, 2017
- Peter Wirth and Catherine Lou Fellowship, 2017
- Judith A. Markowitz LAMBDA Literary Award, 2021
Selected Publications
- Whidbey, a novel, HarperCollins, 2026
- Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls: A Memoir, Bloomsbury, March 2019
- “Hawai’i the Local Way,” Bon Appétit, 2025
- The Lab: Experiments in Cross-Genre Writing, W.W. Norton, 2025
- Letter to a Stranger: Essays to the Ones Who Haunt Us, Algonquin, Spring 2022
- PEN America's The Sentences That Create Us: Crafting a Writer's Life in Prison, Haymarket Books, Winter 2022
- “To the Woman in the Earrings,” Off Assignment, nonfiction, 2022
- “OBJECT: Julia Roberts Memorabilia,” The Believer, nonfiction, 2022
- Horse Girls, Harper Perennial, Summer 2021
- “Writing Past Burnout, on Olelo Hawaiian,” Poets & Writers, nonfiction, 2021
- “Recommended Reading,” Introduction to Tyler Barton, Electric Literature, nonfiction, 2021
- “I Don’t Love Horses,” Refinery29, nonfiction, 2021
- “Caesar Salad: Anamnesis,” Autostraddle, nonfiction, 2021
- “When the Squirrels Are Over,” Catapult, nonfiction, 2021
- “Judy in Her Good Robe,” Virginia Quarterly Review, fiction, 2021
- “Rapunzel,” Fairy Tale Review, fiction, 2021
- “Mr. Burley,” The Rumpus, fiction, Winter 2020
- “Viewfinder” Harper’s, Stonewall Forum, nonfiction, Summer 2019
- “Viewfinder” Harper’s, Stonewall Forum, photography, Summer 2019
- “A Brief History of Grocery Stores,” McSweeney’s, fiction, Spring 2019
- “Against Catharsis,” Lit Hub, nonfiction/craft, Spring 2019
- “The Greeter,” The Sun, nonfiction, Spring 2019
- “No Rest for the Wicked Witch of the West,” NYLON, nonfiction, Spring 2019
- “Grub Street Diet,” New York Magazine, nonfiction, Spring 2019
- “Why You Like It,” Buzzfeed, nonfiction, Spring 2019
- “Take the Shoes, Take the Girl,” Vice/Garage Magazine, fiction, Winter 2019
- “The Pamphlet,” Medium, Nightmare Fuel Special Issue, fiction, Fall 2018
- “Before He Died, My Father Took Me to the Olympics,” PEN America, nonfiction, Summer 2018
- “It Should Have Been Lovely,” PEN America, nonfiction, Summer 2018
- Go Home!, Feminist Press and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, Spring 2018
Appointed to the Faculty
2025Educational Background
M.F.A., Sarah Lawrence College
B.B.A., Parsons School of Design & Eugene Lang College (The New School)
