This May, we’re celebrating Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month by sharing some of the many AANHPI authors and stories from the press. The books below highlight Japanese American activism and multiracial coalitions, lesser-known histories, and major AANHPI figures in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
If you’re craving something literary, browse our Classics of Asian American Literature series for novels, poetry, story collections, and more.
Balikbayan: A Revenant History of the Filipino Homeland by Adrian De Leon
De Leon compiles deep and thoughtful research in community archives to trace how Filipinos, both at home and overseas, have shaped the societies they’ve settled in and transformed the very idea of the Philippines itself.
Moving Mountains: Asian American and Pacific Islander Feminisms and the 1977 National Women’s Conference by Judy Tzu-Chun Wu and Adrienne A. Winans
Foregrounding figures like Congresswoman Patsy Takemoto Mink and poet Mitsuye Yamada, Wu and Winans position AA and PI women as central actors in feminist politics, engaging with, and at times resisting, state institutions to forge paths toward racial and gender justice.
A Place for What We Lose: A Daughter’s Return to Tule Lake by Tamiko Nimura
In this “gut-wrenching work of intergenerational dialogue” (Publishers Weekly), Nimura, a descendant of Japanese American incarceration, interlaces passages from her late father’s memoir about his experiences in camp alongside her own reflections on grief, history, and collective remembrance.
Uncle Rico’s Encore: Mostly True Stories of Filipino Seattle by Peter Bacho
A significant voice in Filipino American literature for decades, Bacho offers a love note to Seattle and its Pinoy community in this collection of “punchy, funny essays” (Seattle Times). Intimate moments of everyday life—fishing at Madison Beach, playing basketball at Madrona Park—intermingle with vivid stories of defiance and activism to illustrate a life inextricably connected to his community and the generations that came before.
Caring for Caregivers: Filipina Migrant Workers and Community Building during Crisis by Valerie Francisco-Menchavez
A scholar of sociology and sexuality studies, Francisco-Menchavez centers the perspectives of Filipino caregivers in the San Francisco Bay Area from 2013 to 2021, illuminating their transnational experiences as well as their strategies and practices to help each other navigate the crumbling US health-care system.
The Unknown Great: Stories of Japanese Americans at the Margins of History by Greg Robinson with Jonathan van Harmelen
This collection draws from Robinson’s writings for the Japanese American newspaper Discover Nikkei and the Japanese American National Museum to present biographical portraits of remarkable people in Japanese American history. Taken together, the unfamiliar stories of these lives illuminate the diversity of the Nikkei experience from the turn of the twentieth century to the present day.
Reppin’: Pacific Islander Youth and Native Justice edited by Keith L. Camacho
The dynamic power of Pacific Islander youth who are reshaping the present and future of urban spaces in Oceania and beyond comes to the fore in this cross-disciplinary volume—offering “fresh perspectives about what it means to be from voices, places, and within situations we usually don’t hear about” (Rick Bonus, author of Locating Filipino Americans).
Nisei Radicals: The Feminist Poetics and Transformative Ministry of Mitsuye Yamada and Michael Yasutake by Diane C. Fujino
Fujino, a noted chronicler of Japanese American radicalism, weaves together the stories of two distinct but intrinsically connected political lives. Tracing the activism of siblings Mitsuye Yamada and Michael Yasutake, this book will expand your understanding of postwar Japanese America.
Asian American Feminisms and Women of Color Politics edited by Lynn Fujiwara and Shireen Roshanravan
This groundbreaking volume “builds a robust and outspoken Asian American feminist conceptual framework” (Hypatia). The collected essays consider topics such as the politics of visibility, histories of Asian American participation in women of color political formations, cross-racial solidarities, and Asian American community-based strategies against state violence.
Nature Unfurled: Asian American Environmental Histories edited by Connie Y. Chiang
Through a collection of expansive and path-breaking essays, Nature Unfurled examines the links between Asian American and environmental history from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century. “Connie Chiang has assembled an essential volume that adds new topics and communities while simultaneously revisiting subjects like Anti-Asian immigrant legislation and Japanese-American internment with wholly original arguments and archives” (Julie Sze, author of Environmental Justice in a Moment of Danger).
