Adult Fiction
The APALA Adult Literature Fiction committee selected The End of Peril, The End of Enmity, The End of Strife, A Haven by Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint, published by Noemi Press.
The End of Peril, End of Enmity, End of Strife, a Haven is a short fascinating novel. Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint deftly weaves beautiful sentences to invoke a world from memory, dream, and imagination, blurring the boundary between reality and myth; living and dead. Myint explores familial relationships, notions of belonging and renewal, as well as peril, enmity, and strife in life’s journey.
The honor title is Though I Get Home by YZ Chin, published by The Feminist Press at CUNY.
Though I Get Home is a collection of fourteen beautifully interconnected short stories. YZ Chin’s debut novel has earned a Kirkus Star Review and is filled with literary writing that transports the reader through a journey in Malaysia and provides a rich introduction to the country and its history and culture.
Adult Non-Fiction
The Adult Non-Fiction winner is Not Quite Not White: Losing and Finding Race in America, written by Sharmila Sen, and published by Penguin Books.
At once a deeply personal memoir and a primer on race in America from the perspective of an Indian immigrant, Sen’s Not Quite Not White offers a richly literary examination of the various systems of class, race, religion, and culture that defined who she is, drawing on her familial and educational backgrounds in Hindu mythology, Indian politics, British and American literature, Bollywood, American television, and more. Even as she makes her way into narratives of success as whiteness in America, Sen challenges this yearning for whiteness and searches instead for a messy but fuller embrace of all races in America.
The adult Non-Fiction honor title is Litany for the Long Moment, written by Mary-Kim Arnold, published by Essay Press.
In Litany for the Long Moment, Arnold explores her experiences as a transracial adoptee in short, poetic essays that take the forms of responses to a Korean adoptee-reunion television show questionnaire and journal entries during a Korean heritage tour. In sifting through the scant documentation of her adoption, she questions the primacy of these photographs and texts for defining her history and identity, finding resonances in the work of artists and poets whose work challenge the idea of making meaning in photographs and writing.
Youth Literature
The Asian/Pacific American Award for Youth Literature winner is Darius the Great is Not Okay, written by Adib Khorram, and published by Dial Books.
Darius is an introverted, awkward, tea-loving teenager in Portland, Oregon. He doesn’t fit in at school. Students mock his Persian name, and he is probably the only kid at Chapel Hill High who knows Klingon. Darius feels like a misfit at home too. The only things he shares with his white father are clinical depression and Star Trek nights. Plus, Darius doesn’t feel Persian enough in his family, especially since his younger sister speaks more Farsi. His sense of belonging – in his own skin, in his family, and as a Persian – is tested on his first trip to Iran when he visits his ill grandfather. Darius the Great is Not Okay was chosen as the winning title for its heartfelt portrayal of a teenager seeking a place to belong in his family and his culture. Like the friendship between Darius and Sohrab, the book is a sweet and tender coming-of-age tale. Many readers will relate to its realistic depiction of clinical depression and Darius’s struggle to feel confident in his biracial identity.
The committee selected one Young Adult Literature Honor title The Astonishing Color of After, written by Emily X.R. Pan, and published by Little Brown and Company.
A magical red bird appears in 15-year-old Leigh’s life after both a wonderful and tragic day. The wonderful day: Leigh kisses Axel, the best friend she is in love with. The same tragic day: Leigh comes home to news of her mother’s suicide. Unsure of her relationship with Axel, grieving her mother, and living with a distant father, Leigh feels alone except for the periodic sightings of a red bird. She follows the red bird’s directions to visit her estranged maternal grandparents in Taiwan, where Leigh learns cultural traditions and discovers family secrets. In Taiwan, she seeks connection to her mother’s life and reasons for her mother’s mental illness. Astonishing Color of After was honor for its honest depiction of the pain endured by families after suicide. The committee applauds the authentic representation of Taiwanese traditions and beliefs depicted across generations. The author illustrates a contemporary biracial teenager’s experience of living between cultures with vivid surrealism.
Children’s Literature
Front Desk written by Kelly Yang, and published by Arthur A. Levine Books (Scholastic), is the 2019 Asian/Pacific American Award for Children’s Literature winner.
Debut author Kelly Yang draws from personal experience to create a humorous and poignant novel, Front Desk, centering on 10-year-old Mia who manages a motel with her immigrant parents. Set in the 90s, readers experience firsthand the hardships of the immigrant experience – long working hours, toiling in menial work, institutional and outright racism, in-group oppression of newer immigrants, and the need to bite back one’s tongue. Yang’s take on key social issues is compelling and translatable beyond cultural borders by giving the voiceless a voice. The themes of community, empowerment, and strength are prevalent throughout, depicting the strength we gain from others and how a network of support can bind a community together.
The committee selected one Children’s Literature Honor title, The House that Lou Built, written by Mae Respicio, and published by Wendy Lamb Books.
Inspired by the emerging tiny house movement, Mae Respicio’s The House That Lou Built depicts a biracial protagonist who follows her dreams of building a small home on her father’s land. When her mother falls short on property payments and proposes a move to Northern California, Lou, along with her friends, finds a way to see her dream to reality. Lou redefines home beyond the traditional four walls as “more of a feeling — of comfort and trust, of people who are a part of you.” Respicio’s debut novel portrays Filipino culture with authenticity from personal recollections, creating a story around a rich culture while simultaneously showing the power of being able to depend on those around you.
Picture Book
The Picture Book winner is Drawn Together, written by Minh Lê, illustrated by Dan Santat, and published by Disney Hyperion.
Drawn Together is the story of a Thai-American boy and his grandfather, who seemingly at first do not share many things in common. They do not speak the same language, eat the same things, or have the same tastes in television shows, and so their world together is shared with many moments of silence. One afternoon their relationship changes over a shared love of art that eloquently captures the linguistic and cultural divides that originally separated the two. As the two settle in to watch television together, the generational differences between them only continue to grow. The boy loses interest and turns to drawing with crayons and markers. The grandfather’s eyes light up and he brings out his calligraphy brush and ink, and they embark on a collaborative creative adventure that builds a bridge between their two worlds to create one, but not without a little tumult along the way. Lê’s words and Dan Santat’s art merge in a perfect blend of subtlety and exuberance to show that despite generational and cultural obstacles, we can be drawn together.
The committee selected one Picture Book Honor title, Grandmother’s Visit written by Betty Quan, illustrated by Carmen Mok, and published by Groundwood Books.
Grandmother’s Visit is a contemplative, quiet exploration of a Chinese-American’s girl loss when her grandmother passes. The book opens with the sweet relationship between a granddaughter and grandmother who teaches her the secret ratio of rice to water and sharing her rich food memories of her childhood in China. Everyday grandma walks the little girl to school in the morning and is waiting there for her afterschool to walk back home until one day, grandmother does not walk her to and from school anymore and grandma’s room remains closed and life is never the same after. The little girl’s family begins the process of grieving, turning on all the lights outside of the house to help grandmother’s spirit say goodbye. One night, the little girl goes into her grandmother’s room and sees her house key has bookmarked a picture of her grandmother holding her as a baby. The granddaughter is able to say her final goodbye. Quan’s quiet and spare tone is illustrated beautifully by Mok’s gray-toned digital paintings that visualize the author’s story of memory and grief. Grandmother’s Visit is a lovely portrait of the relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter, and just may remind readers that their own memories of grandparents are as numerous, and as clear, as grains of washed rice in water.