May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month! This month is set aside to specifically honor and appreciate the achievements of Asian and Pacific Islanders in the United States. May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese people to the United States on May 7, 1843, and also to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants.
In honor of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, here are the 2018 winners for all age categories of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature.
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The leavers
by Lisa Ko An award-winning debut novel follows the experiences of a Chinese youth who when his undocumented worker mother fails to return home is adopted by a family that attempts to make him over as an American teen while he struggles to reconcile his new life with memories of the family he left behind. |
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The refugees
by Viet Thanh Nguyen The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer presents a new collection of stories, written over a 20-year period, which explores questions of home, family, immigration, the American experience and the relationships and desires for self-fulfillment that define our lives. |
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It's not like it's a secret
by Misa Sugiura A girl whose life revolves around big and small secrets struggles with differences between two diverse groups of friends, a boy's sweet but unrequited affection, her crush on her best friend and her father's increasingly obvious affair. |
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Saints and misfits
by S. K. Ali Struggling to secure her identity as an Arab Indian-American hijabi teen who loves pop culture and aspires to a career in photography, Janna Yusuf falls for a boy she cannot date and considers exposing a person with a monstrous nature who is pretending to be a saint in their tightknit Muslim community. |
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Step up to the plate, Maria Singh
by Uma Krishnaswami Nine-year-old Maria Singh learns to play softball just like her heroes in the All-American Girls' League, while her parents and neighbors are struggling through World War II, working for India's independence, and trying to stay on their farmland. |
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Cilla Lee-Jenkins : future author extraordinaire
by Susan Tan A biracial young writer begins penning her memoirs in the hope that her family will not forget about her when a new baby sibling arrives, describing her embarrassment at having little hair as a toddler, her struggles with reading and the cultural traditions she shares with her Chinese grandparents. |
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A different pond
by Bao Phi As a young boy, Bao Phi awoke early, hours before his father's long workday began, to fish on the shores of a small pond in Minneapolis. Unlike many other anglers, Bao and his father fished for food, not recreation. Between hope-filled casts, Bao's father told him about a different pond in their homeland of Vietnam. |
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The Nian monster
by Andrea Wang The legendary Nian monster has returned at Chinese New Year. Nian is intent on devouring Shanghai, starting with young Xingling! But Xingling is clever and thinks quickly to outwit him with Chinese New Year traditions. |