AAPI Heritage Month: New & Noteworthy

Selected by Aimee Nezhukumatathil as the winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, Danni Quintos carves a space for brown girls and weird girls in her debut collection of poems. Two Brown Dots explores what it means to be a racially ambiguous, multiethnic, Asian American woman growing up in Kentucky. Encompassing a whole journey from girlhood to motherhood, Two Brown Dots subverts stereotypes to reclaim agency and pride in the realness and rawness and unprettyness of a brown girl's body, boldly declaring: We exist, we belong, we are from here, and we will continue to be.

In Water Thicker Than Blood, poet and professor George Uba traces his life as a Japanese American born in the late 1940s, a period of insidious anti-Japanese racism. His beautiful, impressionist memoir chronicles how he, like many Sansei (and Nisei) across the United States, grappled with dislocation and trauma while seeking acceptance and belonging.  Uba's personal account of his efforts to achieve normality and assuage guilt unfolds as racial demographics in America are shifting. He struggled with inherently violent midcentury educational and childrearing practices and a family health crisis, along with bullying.

In Race at the Top, Natasha Warikoo examines competition in suburban high schools with growing numbers of Asian Americans, where white parents are determined to maintain their children's top position in academics. In these historically white and privileged enclaves, Asian American professionals are moving in to give their children the same leg up for their college applications and future careers. This race for power and privilege perpetuates urgent issues of racial and economic inequality, with children living beyond these towns' boundaries being the ones who lose out.

"Flux" is a stylish debut novel that combines elements of neo-noir and speculative fiction. The story follows the lives of three men - Bo, Brandon, and Blue - whose paths intersect and lead them to uncover a network of secrets and experimental technology. Alongside their stories is the saga of an iconic '80s detective show, Raider. "Flux" explores the cyclical nature of grief, moving past trauma, and the development of Asian identity in America.

A searing memoir of reckoning and healing by acclaimed journalist Stephanie Foo. In this deeply personal and thoroughly researched account, Foo interviews scientists and psychologists and tries a variety of innovative therapies [for PTSD]. She returns to her hometown of San Jose, California, to investigate the effects of immigrant trauma on the community, and she uncovers family secrets in the country of her birth, Malaysia, to learn how trauma can be inherited through generations. Ultimately, she discovers that you don't move on from trauma--but you can learn to move with it. Powerful, enlightening, and hopeful, What My Bones Know is a brave narrative that reckons with the hold of the past over the present, the mind over the body--and examines one woman's ability to reclaim agency from her trauma.

A blazingly original debut novel told by a chorus of unforgettable voices, Brown Girls illustrates a collective portrait of childhood, adulthood, and beyond, and is a striking exploration of female friendship, a powerful depiction of women of color attempting to forge their place in the world today. For even as the conflicting desires of ambition and loyalty, freedom and commitment, adventure and stability risk dividing them, it is to one another--and to Queens--that the girls ultimately return.

When Indian American journalist Smita returns to India to write the story of a young widow Meena and the murder of her husband, it's Smita's first time back since her family left when she was a child. Moving, perceptive, and heartbreaking, this is a story about two women and what they inspire in each other as they navigate a home where terrible things have occurred, and are allowed to keep occurring, a country that they want, more than anything, to love.  

From the author of the classic A Little Life--a bold, brilliant novel spanning three centuries and three different versions of the American experiment, about lovers, family, loss and the elusive promise of utopia. To Paradise is a fin de siecle novel of marvelous literary effect, but above all it is a work of emotional genius.  The great power of this remarkable novel is driven by Yanagihara's understanding of the aching desire to protect those we love--partners, lovers, children, friends, family and even our fellow citizens--and the pain that ensues when we cannot.