Writer

Liana Holmberg writes fiction, poetry, and reportage. Her work has received several awards and been published in a variety of venues. Her poem "Aunt Ida's Box" was selected by National Book Award winner Mark Doty for inclusion in the Academy of American Poets anthology New Voices. Her articles and reviews have appeared in the alternative newspaper Honolulu Weekly and the literary journal Manoa. She has given readings in San Francisco and Honolulu.

Inspired by the likes of Margaret Atwood, Anne Carson, and Bruno Schultz -- writers who mine the seam between reality and the fantastic -- Liana's work explores the hybridity of modern experience. Other influences include ancient mythology, film noir, and a life spent exploring boundaries. Her sensibility is both imagistic and grounded in the physical.

Liana holds a Master's Degree in Creative Writing from the University of Hawai`i. Her thesis, Reportage: Stories and Poems, was written under the direction of Pulitzer Prize short-listed poet Faye Kicknosway and multiple award winning novelist Ian MacMillan. She earned her Bachelor's in English from Colorado College, where her thesis on William Gibson's Neuromancer earned top marks. She has also attended the Stanford Professional Publishing Course and Reed College, and she graduated from Punahou high school.

Liana grew up in a multicultural, rural community on the North Shore of O`ahu, where she could usually be found barefoot on land or under the water.  As a young woman, she embraced the physical and psychological tests of backpacking and rock climbing around the West and sailing the Pacific. She is equally challenged these days by the adventure of motherhood, still climbing and sailing when she can. Liana lives with her partner and her son in San Francisco, where she writes at her stand-up desk and in local cafes.


Sample Work -- A selection of short pieces

• And He Shall Have Dominion - In LITnIMAGE
• How It Ended - In decomP magazinE (with audio)
• Aunt Ida's Box - Academy of American Poets prize winner, anthologized in New Voices.
• Surface Area - In sPARKLE & bLINK (video below)

_Click to watch the video of Liana reading "Surface Area" at Supper Club, San Francisco, as part of the Quiet Lightning reading series.

Publications she appeared in:

Academy of American Poets

The Mystified Boat:

sPARKLE & bLINK

Hawaii Review

Honolulu Weekly