Buy Kalani Padilla a coffee

Kalani (she/they) is a Filipino-American and kama’aina poet from Mililani, Hawai’i. Kalani is a Whitworth alumn of English (B.A.) and Theology (M.A.). Currently, Kalani tends home in Missoula, Montana, an MFA candidate, writing mentor, yogi, and river rat. Kalani hopes her creative and academic pursuits bring her home one day; in the meantime, the islands, the Pacific Northwest, and Mountain West regions all nourish Kalani’s writing practice in turn. Kalani received their first Fellowship at the University of Montana— the Hugo Fellowship, and was this year’s winner of the Madeline DeFrees prize for poetry. Their poetry appears and is forthcoming in Bamboo Ridge Press and Poets.org