Fiction, poetry and history from aapi authors

The story of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders is not a singular one. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders hail from more than 20 countries, reflecting a multitude of languages,

traditions, cultures — and narratives. Collectively, they represent the fastest-growing racial group in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center, and they have become a

creative force of notable fiction, poetry, memoir, nonfiction and children’s literature. Malindo Lo’s young adult novel, _Last Night at the Telegraph Club,_ won the National Book Award this

year, and _Watercress,_ a picture book written by Andrea Wang and illustrated by Jason Chin, received both a Caldecott Medal and a Newbery Honor. In 2019, Ocean Vuong, poet and author of the

best-selling novel _On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,_ was awarded the MacArthur “Genius” Grant, while Charles Yu’s _Interior Chinatown_ won the National Book Award for fiction and Don Mee

Choi’s _DMZ Colony_ won the National Book Award for poetry. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s _The Sympathizers_ also received a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2016, and Jhumpa Lahiri’s _The Lowland_ was

short-listed for the 2013 Man Booker Prize. To celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we've highlighted 10 captivating and diverse books by AAPI authors. They

were curated from a long list of recommendations from May-lee Chai, a creative writing professor at San Francisco State University and author of the memoir _Hapa Girl_; Marie Myung-Ok Lee, a

writer in residence at Columbia University and author of the new novel _The Evening Hero_; Colleen Lye, an English professor at UC Berkeley; and Maw Shein Win, a poet and author of _Storage

Unit for the Spirit House._ HarperCollins Publishers _RISE: A POP HISTORY OF ASIAN AMERICA FROM THE NINETIES TO NOW​_ BY JEFF YANG, PHIL YU, AND PHILIP WANG​ Fun and empowering,_ Rise: A

Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now_ chronicles the rising influence of Asian Americans in entertainment, food, fashion and politics. From _The Joy Luck Club_ to _Crazy

Rich Asians,_ Yahoo to Zappos, Vera Wang to Prabal Gurung, Asians and Asian Americans have put their stamp on popular culture. _Rise_ deftly captures the history, challenges and triumphs

through colorful graphics, illustrations, essays and interviews. ​  Ballantine Books _FORBIDDEN CITY​_ BY VANESSA HUA ​Vanessa Hua’s _Forbidden City_ takes us back to the start of China’s

Cultural Revolution, a turbulent time that eventually led to the persecution and deaths of millions of people. An ambitious, teenage girl named Mei leaves her impoverished village and finds

herself inside the walls of Chairman Mao’s palatial home, as one of his dancing partners. (Mao was a fan of ballroom dancing.) From there, Mei becomes his confidant, lover — and a strategist

in the revolution. ​ ​ W. W. Norton & Company _THE IMMORTAL KING RAO_​ BY VAUHINI VARA​ _The Immortal King Rao,_ a novel by former _Wall Street Journal_ technology reporter Vauhini

Vara, imagines a man raised on a coconut farm in India who becomes a Steve Jobs-like figure in the United States and the founder of a powerful company called Coconut Computer Corporation. He

has now passed on his legacy to his daughter, Athena, who must wrestle with the dystopian world he helped create, one that is devastated by climate change, in which the government has been

replaced by a corporate entity, and where humans can connect their brains to the internet.​ ​