Hawaii-based writers Paul Theroux and Joe Tsujimoto have been named the 2008 winners of the Elliot Cades Award for Literature, the highest literary honor in the state.

Theroux, who received the award for an established artist, is an award-winning writer who has received international acclaim for a number of best-selling novels and travel books. When not traveling, Theroux spends part of each year in Hawaii, absorbing island stories and culture. Among his dozens of novels and travel books, several have dealt specifically with Hawaii and Pacific issues. These include "The Happy Isles of Oceania" and "Hotel Honolulu."

Tsujimoto, who won the award for an emerging artist, recently published his first collection of stories, "Morningside Heights: New York Stories." Born and raised in New York City, he married a local girl who was attending Teacher's College and brought him to Hawaii in 1971. He received his masters from the University of Hawaii-Manoa; taught at Seabury Hall and Iolani, and, since 1981, at Punahou School, where he teaches English to eighth-graders.

The two writers will be honored as part of the fourth annual Hawaii Book and Music Festival on the Honolulu civic center grounds May 17-18.

The Cades Awards, given annually since 1988, were created by Charlotte and J. Russell Cades in memory of his brother, Elliott, a teacher and lover of literature. They are administered by the Hawaii Literary Arts Council, which was founded in 1974 to encourage and promote literature and literary activity of all sorts in Hawaii.