Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month seeks to highlight and celebrate the traditions, history, cultures and contributions of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in the United States. Here are some titles we are reading and recommending from AAPI authors or touching on AAPI history or contemporary experiences:
Real Americans by Rachel Khong
In immersive, moving prose, Rachel Khong weaves a profound tale of class and striving, race and visibility, and family and inheritance—a story of trust, forgiveness, and finally coming home.
Exuberant and explosive, Real Americans is a social novel par excellence that asks: Are we destined, or made? And if we are made, who gets to do the making? Can our genetic past be overcome?
The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan
Tracking the natural beauty that surrounds us, The Backyard Bird Chronicles maps the passage of time through daily entries, thoughtful questions, and beautiful original sketches. With boundless charm and wit, author Amy Tan charts her foray into birding and the natural wonders of the world.
The Gate, the Girl, and the Dragon by Grace Lin, publishing May 6
Preorder now and receive the gorgeous DELUXE LIMITED EDITION while supplies last―featuring stenciled designed sprayed edges, as well as a foil case stamp and designed endpapers. This must-have special edition is only available on a limited first print run while supplies last in the US and Canada only.
From award-winning and bestselling author of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon Grace Lin comes a gorgeously full-color illustrated story about a lion cub and a girl who must open a portal for the spirits, based on Chinese folklore.
Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao
On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it. Most will see a cozy ramen restaurant. And only the chosen ones—those who are lost—will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets.
Read Camila’s review.
They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran
The author of the New York Times bestselling horror phenomenon She Is a Haunting is back with a novel about the monsters that swim beneath us . . . and live within us.
Soy Sauce! by Laura G. Lee
A joyful picture book for kids and foodies of all ages (with real soy sauce as paint!) that celebrates the iconic kitchen staple and the magical way food connects family and friends across the world.
Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All by Chanel Miller
New York Times bestselling author and artist Chanel Miller tells a fun, funny, and poignant story of friendship and community starring Magnolia Wu, a ten-year-old sock detective bent on returning all the lonely only socks left behind in her parents’ NYC laundromat.
Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet: Essays and Interviews by Adrienne Su
In Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet, Adrienne Su contemplates her own use of food as a recurring metaphor, influential teachers and peers, the push and pull between cooking and writing, changing expectations around English usage, and craft questions such as: Why does some subject matter refuse to cooperate in the creative process, even when it appears close to home? How does one write a good poem about being happy? Why write in rhyme when it’s time-consuming and mostly out of style? What is a poem’s responsibility to the literal truth?
Su’s essays are driven by the tensions between worlds that overlap and collide: social conventions of the northern and southern United States; notions of what’s American and what’s Asian American; the demands of the page and the demands of the home; the solitariness of writing and the meaningful connection a poem can create between writer and reader. In interviews, often with fellow poets, she discusses a range of topics, from her early days in the Nuyorican poetry-slam scene to the solace of poetry and cooking during Covid-19 lockdown. While Su’s previous books are all collections of poetry, she has been publishing individual essays for many years. Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet gathers the best of them into one volume for the first time.
Every Drop Is a Man’s Nightmare by Megan Kamalei Kakimoto
Megan Kamalei Kakimoto’s wrenching and sensational debut story collection presents a Hawai’i where unruly sexuality and generational memory overflow the postcard image of paradise and the boundaries of the real, where the superstitions born of the islands take on the weight of truth.
Every Drop Is a Man’s Nightmare is both a fierce love letter to Hawaiian identity and mythology, and a searing dispatch from an occupied territory threatening to erupt with violent secrets.