Welcome to Koa Books

Wayne Moniz, the "Dean of Maui Playwrights," offers seven tales of his island home, each in a different genre-love, detective, adventure, war, science fiction, and ghost stories, and a Western-"to preserve the memory of a time that is slipping away and to encourage action to protect Hawaii’s unique land and culture." In 2005, Moniz received the Cades Award for Literature, Hawaii's most prestigious writing prize.

"With firm knowledge and a gift of telling stories, Wayne Moniz takes us from pre-contact Hawai‘i to the 1960s on an island of gods and royalty, cowboys and schoolboys." --Deborah Iida, award-winning author of Middle Son

Sulak Sivaraksa is one of Asia’s leading social thinkers and activists. In The Wisdom of Sustainability, he continues E. F. Schumacher’s groundbreaking work on Buddhist economics. Emphasizing small-scale, indigenous, sustainable alternatives to globalization, Sulak offers hope and alternatives for restructuring our economies based on Buddhist principles and personal development. He is recipient of the Right Livelihood Award ("alternative Nobel Peace Prize.")

"Like Gandhi, Sulak offers great inspiration to a civilization that has lost its way."-- Jack Kornfield, author of The Wise Heart

Winner, Ka Palapala Ho‘okela Award for Excellence in Nonfiction

America’s long century of imperial adventures began with the illegal occupation of Hawai‘i. In Nation Within, journalist/historian Tom Coffman tells the heartfelt story of Hawaii’s resistance to annexation, both in Honolulu and Washington, D.C., and the pivotal roles of Theodore Roosevelt and others.

"The untold story of Hawai‘i, the history we were not given in school. … Sobering, and fascinating." --Howard Zinn

The authors and a team of attorneys, military strategists, and environmental activists expose in detail how Hawaii’s interisland ferry was hijacked by neoconservatives with vast military ties and is, in fact, a prototype for America’s sea-based military strategy. Without an Environmental Impact Statement and never approved by the people of Hawai‘i, the 800-ton Superferry rode into Hawai‘i on a wave of deception and corruption. The New York Times calls Jerry Mander “the patriarch of the anti-globalization movement.” 

"Good for you—people of Hawai‘i—who’ve raised the alarm, and to these authors for pulling back the curtain.”—Bill McKibben, author Deep Economy

Bestselling author of He, She, We, and other psychology classics, shares a lifetime of insights and experiences in this easy-to-read book on psychological projection — seeing traits in others that are, in fact, our own. Drawing on early Christianity, medieval alchemy, depth psychology, and the myths of The Flying Dutchman and The Once and Future King, he also explores the subjects of loneliness, fundamentalist religion, and the spiritual dimensions of psychology.

“The healing power of Robert's writing is palpable.” —Marion Woodman

Since 1993, National Book Award-winning author Kingston has led writing-and-meditation workshops for veterans and their families. This book is the harvest of their work together, creative, redemptive storytelling — nonfiction, fiction, and poetry — spanning five wars and written by those most profoundly affected by these conflicts.

“Powerful and finely written” —Chicago Tribune

“No one I know personally has done more to help veterans bear witness to unspeakable experience than Maxine Hong Kingston.”   —Bill Moyers

During the run-up to war with Iraq, Ann Wright resigned from her State Department post, saying that without UN authorization the invasion and occupation would be a disaster. In Dissent: Voices of Conscience, Wright and Dixon tell the stories of government insiders and active-duty military personnel who also spoke out, leaked documents, resigned, or refused to deploy in protest of the Bush administration’s war policies
. “This illuminating and remarkably impressive book should be leaked into the government.” — from the Foreword, by Daniel Ellsberg .

Essays and journal entries by Cindy Sheehan, on her occupation of the Bush ranch in 2005, the moment that reawakened the American Peace movement.

“There is a rhythm and tempo in her prose which recalls the great epic writers of Greece. She has a gift of candor and directness and epic simplicity, … a born writer.”
—Dario Fo, Winner of Nobel Prize for Literature.