Sara Kehaulani Goo visits Book Passage in Corte Madera on Tuesday, Sept. 8, to discuss her memoir about her family's fight to keep ancestral land on Maui. Goo, a Native Hawaiian journalist, has led newsrooms at Axios, NPR and the Washington Post.

The free event begins at 4 p.m. at 51 Tamal Vista Blvd. Seating is open. A book signing and meet-and-greet will follow the talk.

Goo's memoir, Kuleana: A Story of Family, Land, and Legacy in Old Hawai'i, traces what happened when her family faced a 500% property-tax increase on land along Maui's east coast. King Kamehameha III granted the land to her ancestors in 1848. It stretches from mountain to sea, encompassing undeveloped rainforest and a massive 16th-century temple known as a heiau, according to the Book Passage event listing.

The tax hike forced the family to decide whether to fight to hold the land or sell to an outside buyer. Goo, who served as editor-in-chief at Axios and managing editor at NPR, turned her reporting skills on her own family's story.

"Living in Washington, I didn't see enough stories about people from Hawai'i … I mean true stories about the real drama taking place there," Goo said in a June interview with journalist Sarah McCammon. "It's the only state in our nation that used to be an independent nation … Why is there so little curiosity about that fact?"

The book, first published in hardcover in June 2025, arrives in paperback timed to the Book Passage appearance. September is Hawaiian History Month, as the Pacific Sun noted in its listing. Kuleana is a Hawaiian word meaning responsibility and stewardship, particularly in the context of caring for land.

Publishers Weekly called the book "a stirring debut memoir" and "an urgent reminder that Indigenous culture is alive and braided with modern life."

Goo will be joined in conversation by Emily Dreyfuss, co-author of Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America. More information is available at the Book Passage website or by calling (415) 927-0960.