Desireé Leialoha is a mixed-race and proud Kanaka Oʻiwi (Native Hawaiian) writer from the Bay Area who focuses her craft on telling stories that reflect the communities of where she grew up. Although removed from her family’s ancestral land by about 3,000 miles, she was raised by a fiercely Hawaiian family and continues to share the values and history of her heritage and identity with her teenage son. She studied Creative Writing and Ethnic Studies at Saint Mary’s College of CA. It is this educational background and her unique lived experiences as a diasporic-Kanaka and single mom from the SF Bay Area that is foundational in understanding how she forms characters and stories that can relate to multiple communities of readers. The kinds of stories she works to tell are those that connect us to where we are, our relationships, and let us know we aren’t alone in the world. Her writing experience includes short stories, personal essays, plays, and most recently has been focused on screenwriting craft. In 2024, her most recent short plays were showcased at the Native Voices 14th Annual Short Play Festival and Entertwine’s APIDA’s Short Play Top Ten Grand Event.