HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Disa Dawn, a daughter of Guam, just published her fourth book in the “Tennessee England” series, which represents the culture, voices and legends of her island home, with a supernatural twist.
Growing up an avid reader, Dawn couldn’t find the books that she wanted readily available.
“For me, it has always been about representation. And when I was a young reader, because I really enjoyed reading when I was younger, I would go to the bookstores. I just didn’t see a whole lot of people of color on the book covers in the genre that I wanted to read. I really enjoyed supernatural, fantasy, paranormal, those kinds of things,” Dawn said. “It’s hard to find and I always wondered why was that? Then I didn’t see someone represented in the CHamoru culture and I felt ‘othered’ and a little bit lost and a little bit sad about that. I just loved reading and I couldn’t quite relate to the characters in the books, but I could imagine. I loved to imagine I was someone else in another realm.”
Years later, she now is taking it upon herself to write those books she couldn’t find — now a series about a demon-wrangling CHamorrita named Tennessee, who was a mortician from the South.
According to a 2020 census, the amount of people who identify as CHamoru is below 250,000 people and they are spread all around the country, a majority of whom live outside of the Mariana Islands.
“When I sit back and think about that, that’s a small number. So, the more people, our people that write, design and create art, the more we do that, the louder we become. And if we can collectively get our voices heard — darn it, people will know about the CHamoru culture,” said Dawn.
As an author, Dawn believes that she was destined to write about her roots, about her homeland and that she was meant to create a legacy.
“This is my little part, this is what I can do individually to put into posterity. To leave a legacy beyond me, for the next generation to pick up and continue with, so that we are not lost in the shuffle. Our 250,000 people will be remembered across all genres…. We have so many people doing so many beautiful things out there and sometimes we don’t know it, because we are doing it quietly.”
Dawn had no idea that she would one day be publishing multiple books in a series, with titles ranging from science fiction to the supernatural.
But what she did know is that she needed to share her passion.
“I was just going to write books for myself, but then I said, ‘What do I have to lose?’ You can die and leave nothing, nothing artistically, behind after years of saying that you were going to do this for your people. You were going to add to the conversation, the representation of your people in the world. So, I had to get over the fear and find the courage.… I am going to put my heart and soul into these series and represent my people as much as I can through my own lens, my own perspective, my own heart and my own belief system of our ancestors living alongside us. I just needed to do it,” Dawn said.
In book four of the series, Dawn incorporates the CHamoru language, maps of the Mariana Islands, recites some of the island’s proverbs, and weaves in the legends of Guam’s ancestors into the story plots.
Dawn wants her books to convey that “it can be done.”
“We can write in any genre. We can represent ourselves anywhere and we should. It really is our job to do that. We are the ambassadors as we go out into the world, or if we stay in the Marianas,” she said. “Wherever we are, when we exist, we are an ambassador of our culture, our ancestors. It is our job, it is our duty, really, to carry on their heart. And I really try to weave that in… with my stories and with Tennessee England. She kicks butt, but with kindness.”
The “Tennessee England” series, as well as other titles from Dawn like “The Seekin” and “Beju Byteborne” series, can be found at disadawn.com/.
Disa Dawn
