Rodney Morales is an American fiction writer and an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Hawaii. In his writing, he is concerned with contemporary multi-ethnic Hawaiian society, particularly the social relations between Hawaiians of native, Japanese, and Puerto Rican descent; the 1970s Hawaiian independence movement and the disappearance of its leader, George Helm; and the postmodern juxtaposition of popular artistic forms (the detective novel, cinema) and high literature. Morales wrote his only novel, When the Shark Bites, over a six-year period. He says, "I don't think you can be a good teacher, writing all the time."