{{short description|American novelist}}
'''Gary Pak''' (born 1952) is a writer, editor and professor of English at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.<ref>[http://english.hawaii.edu/faculty/gary-pak/ Pak's faculty profile]</ref> Pak has been noted as one of the most important Asian Hawaiian writers.<ref>[http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/PAKLAN.html Gary Pak: ''Language of the Geckos and Other Stories'']</ref>
==Biography== Gary Pak was born and raised in Hawaii. Pak graduated from Boston University with a BA and from University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa with an MA and a PhD. Growing up in Hawaii, Pak said his first language is Pidgin English. "My culture is from Hawaii; my parents’ and grandparents’ generations helped create that culture", he said during an interview with the Magazine of the University of Hawaii.<ref>[http://www.hawaii.edu/malamalama/2003/07/GaryPak.html Local and Korean roots nourish UH writer Gary Pak]</ref>
Some of Pak's novels are based on the true stories from his family. His grandparents fled from Korea during World War II and came to the United States; in 1905, his grandmother worked on a sugarcane plantation at Hawaii. His novel ''A Ricepaper Airplane'' is based on an incident related with his mum in the setting of a sugarcane plantation. In his short story collection ''Language of the Geckos and Other Stories'', Pak's memorable portraits of Hawai'i's Korean Americans, Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and Native Hawaiians increases cross-cultural understanding of Hawaiian life and culture.
Pak was also the producer, play writer and editor of the Olelo Community TV series, ''Plantation Children: 2nd-generation Koreans in Hawai'i''.
Pak was a recipient of Fulbright Fellow.
==Selected works== ===Short stories=== *"Hae Soon’s Song", appeared in New Press’ anthology *"Crossing Into America: The New Literature of Immigration"
===Books=== *''The Watcher of Waipuna'', Bamboo Ridge Press, 1992<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/dp/0910043280 amazon book: The Watcher of Waipuna]</ref> *''A Ricepaper Airplane'', University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1998<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/dp/0824813014 amazon book: A Ricepaper Airplane]</ref> *''Children of a Fireland'', University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2004 *''Language of the Geckos and Other Stories'', University of Washington Press, 2005<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/dp/0295985275 Language of the Geckos: And Other Stories (The Scott and Laurie Oki Series in Asian American Studies)]</ref>
===Plays=== *''Beyond the Falls'' (children's play) *''Plantation Children: 2nd-generation Koreans in Hawaii'' (TV series)
==Selected awards== *1992 Elliot Cades Award for ''The Watcher of Waipuna'' *2004 Honorable Mention in the Association for Asian American Studies' Book Award in Prose and Poetry for ''Children of a Fireland''<ref>{{cite book|last=Oh|first=Seiwoong|title=Encyclopedia of Asian-American literature|year=2007|publisher=Facts On File|location=New York|isbn=978-0816060863|page=237}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20100610043209/http://www.english.hawaii.edu/cw/faculty/GPak/index.html creative writing program at University of Hawaii]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pak, Gary}} Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:Novelists from Hawaii Category:American writers of Korean descent Category:American educators Category:American academics of English literature Category:American academics of Korean descent Category:University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni Category:Boston University alumni Category:American short story writers Category:American novelists of Asian descent Category:American short story writers of Asian descent Category:American male novelists Category:American male short story writers Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa faculty