As reported in the Maui News:
Loomis wins Cades Award for literature
HONOLULU – Maui News staff writer Ilima Loomis has been named as one of two winners of this year’s Elliot Cades Award for Literature, the state’s most prestigious literary award, according to an announcement from the Hawai’i Literary Arts Council.
The other winner was playwright Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl, who was honored as an established artist. She and Loomis will each receive a substantial cash prize and read from their works at a ceremony in May during the Hawai’i Book and Music Festival.
Loomis, the author of “Rough Riders: Hawaii’s Paniolo and Their Stories,” was picked to receive the Cades Award for an emerging artist, one who shows outstanding literary promise.
For six years, she has been the primary interviewer for the Oahu Cattlemen’s Association “Paniolo Hall of Fame” oral history project. Loomis, a Haiku resident, interviewed cowboys and cattlemen across the state for the project.
A reporter for The Maui News for six years, Loomis has received awards from the Hawaii Publishers Association and the Society of Professional Journalists, Hawaii Chapter, for her feature, investigative, enterprise and public service reporting.
A graduate of Dartmouth College and Iolani School, Loomis has served on the Maui Community College Board of Student Publications, was past adviser to the MCC student newspaper, a volunteer with Big Brothers, Big Sisters, a board member of Maui Ki-Aikido and a speaker to student and youth groups about writing and journalism.
The Cades Awards, given annually since 1988, were created by Charlotte and J. Russell Cades in memory of his brother, Elliot, a teacher and lover of literature. The awards are ministered by the Hawai’i Literary Arts Council.
