Eric Chock

Poet, editor, and educator Eric Chock was born in Hawaii in 1950. He earned his BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA from the University of Hawai’i. He is the author of Last Days Here (1990), a collection of poetry written partly in Hawaiian Creole English, a language historically associated with immigrant laborers. In his work, Chock frequently explores the experiences of Hawaiian Chinese immigrants, and he is known for his advocacy of “local writing.” In 1978, he helped to organize the Talk Story Writers Conference with Stephen Sumida and cofounded the magazine and small press Bamboo Ridge with Darrell Lum. He has edited numerous anthologies of local writing, including Talk Story: An Anthology of Hawaii’s Local Writers (1978) and, with Darrell Lum, Paké: Writings by Chinese in Hawaii (1989) and Best of Honolulu Fiction (1999), among others.
 
His many honors and awards include a Hawaii Award for Literature, the Hawai’i Alliance for Arts Education Arts Educator of the Year, an Elliot Cades Award for Literature, and a Pushcart Prize. Coordinator of Poets in the Schools for the Department of Education for more than 20 years, Chock has been a visiting distinguished writer at the University of Hawai’i-Manoa and taught writing and literature at the University of Hawai’i-West O’ahu before his retirement.