Tag Archives: Seattle Public Library

Celebrating 50 Years of Asian American Literary History at UW Press for AAAS 2024

We are delighted to welcome the Association for Asian American Studies and its members to Seattle for AAAS 2024. This year marks fifty years of contributions to Asian American literary history here at the University of Washington Press and whether or not you’re attending the conference, we have lots in store to celebrate, including author talks and readings that are open to all.

Read on for information about upcoming events and new and forthcoming releases, and visit our virtual exhibit to discover more notable books in Asian American studies. We are pleased to offer AAAS members a 30% discount on all orders to US addresses with promo code WAAAS24 at checkout on our website through May 31, 2024.

New & Forthcoming Books

Island X: Taiwanese Student Migrants, Campus Spies, and Cold War Activism by Wendy Cheng

Public author talk on April 24, 3:30–5:00 pm

“A fascinating, lively account of the Taiwanese diaspora’s surprising influence on America—and America’s furtive investment in their fates, as well.”
—Hua Hsu, author of Stay True: A Memoir

Transpacific, Undisciplined ed. by Lily Wong, Christopher B. Patterson and Chien-ting Lin

AAAS panel on April 25, 10:00–11:30 am

“This superb collection deepens and necessarily challenges our understanding of the ’transpacific.’”
—Crystal Mun-Hye Baik, author of Reencounters: On the Korean War and Diasporic Memory Critique

Dancer Dawkins and the California Kid by Willyce Kim

Public event on April 26, 7:00–8:30 pm
AAAS panel: The Legacies of Aiiieeeee! on April 27, 1:00–2:30 pm

The newest release in the Classics of Asian American Literature series, “Willyce Kim’s groundbreaking debut novel . . . returns to us now in this beautiful new edition, a new home to these iconoclastic rebel lesbians, giving back to us a much-needed queer classic“ (Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel).

The Unknown Great: Stories of Japanese Americans at the Margins of History by Greg Robinson with Jonathan van Harmelen

Public author talk on April 25, 6:00 pm
AAAS Roundtable in Honor of Roger Daniels on April 26, 1:00–2:30 pm

“Greg Robinson is the foremost chronicler of not only the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, but also an eminent historian of the life of the community before and after. With a depth of research unlikely to be rivaled . . . he [offers] a glimpse into the fullness of humanity that otherwise would be obscured or forgotten.“
—Frank H. Wu, coauthor of The Good Citizen

Exiled to Motown: A Community History of Japanese Americans in Detroit by Detroit JACL History Project Committee

Drawing from a community-based oral history and archiving project, Exiled to Motown captures the compelling stories of Japanese Americans in the Midwest, filling in overlooked aspects of the Asian American experience.

Resisting the Nuclear: Art and Activism across the Pacific ed. by Elyssa Faison and Alison Fields

“Essential reading—informative, insightful, revealing, and timely. An important invitation to remember lives lost and impacted by nuclear disasters and to pause and review the ways nuclear power has been mobilized in relation to US imperialism and racial-settler capitalism.” —Susette Min, author of Unnamable: The Ends of Asian American Art

Upcoming Public Events

  • Island X: Taiwanese Student Migrants, Campus Spies, and Cold War Activism Author Talk
    Wednesday, April 24, 3:30 pm at UW, Thomson Hall Room 317
    Drawing on interviews with student activists and extensive archival research, Wendy Cheng documents how Taiwanese Americans developed tight-knit social networks as infrastructures for identity formation, consciousness development, and anticolonial activism. This free event will be held in person and streamed online. For more information and to register, visit the event page here.
  • The Unknown Great: Stories of Japanese Americans at the Margins of History Author Talk
    Thursday, April 25, 6:00 pm at Densho
    Through stories of remarkable people in Japanese American history, The Unknown Great illuminates the diversity of the Nikkei experience from the turn of the twentieth century to the present day. Acclaimed historian and journalist Greg Robinson, along with his collaborator Jonathan van Harmeen, examines the longstanding interactions between African Americans and Japanese Americans, the history of LGBTQ+ Japanese Americans, mixed-race performers and political figures, and much more. Robinson and van Harmelen will be joined in conversation with Nina Wallace, Densho Media and Outreach Manager, as they shine a spotlight on lesser-known stories and unheralded figures from Japanese American history.

    This event will be held in person at Densho and is free to attend, but registration is required as there will be limited seating. For more information and to register, visit the event page here.
  • 50 Years of Asian American Literary History at the University of Washington Press
    Friday, April 26, 7:00 pm at the Seattle Public Library, Central Library
    From the seminal anthology Aiiieeeee! and Carlos Bulosan’s America Is in the Heart to the most recent publication, Willyce Kim’s Dancer Dawkins and the California Kid, join us for a celebration of the UW Press’ contribution to Asian American literature in bringing classic works back into print and championing new writing. Hosted by Shawn Wong and featuring readings from Willyce Kim, Ching-In Chen, and Yanyi, with a Q&A moderated by Eunsong Kim. Books will be available from Elliott Bay Book Company.
    This event is free, and registration is not required.

Read More on the Blog

Behind the Covers: Author Greg Robinson on The Unknown Great

The Controversial Origin of Asian American Studies: Excerpt from Tara Fickle’s Foreword to Aiiieeeee!

Black and white photograph of John Okada, sitting at a desk covered in books and holding a pen.

Celebrating the Life and Legacy of John Okada

The University of Washington Press is proud to co-present events at the Seattle Public Library this fall to celebrate the centennial of the birth of John Okada, author of the seminal Japanese American novel, No-No Boy.

Okada biographer and Seattle Public Library guest curator Frank Abe has arranged a three-part series that will explore Okada’s life, place, and work. Abe is the co-editor with Greg Robinson and Floyd Cheung of John Okada: The Life and Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No Boy, a 2019 American Book Award winner.

“No-No Boy is the great Japanese American novel, one that captures the dislocation of a people returning to Seattle from four years of wartime incarceration,” notes Abe in the Seattle Public Library press release. “In its raw emotion and anger, it was far ahead of its time.”

“It’s also a great novel of Seattle, with passages evoking the buildings and alleyways of Chinatown that still exist today,” says Abe. “Okada once worked at the old Central Library, so it’s fitting the Library as an institution that promotes reading and community should recognize the 100th anniversary of his birth with a reconsideration of his life and legacy.”

Okada was born at the Merchants Hotel in Pioneer Square on September 22, 1923. He attended Broadway High School and the University of Washington before his wartime incarceration in concentration camps in Puyallup and Minidoka, Idaho. He volunteered for the Military Intelligence Service and served as a translator in Guam, after which he earned a degree in library sciences and worked for a time in the Business Department of The Seattle Public Library. No-No Boy, his only novel, was published in 1957 and has been embraced by generations of students and readers. Okada died of a heart attack at the age of 47.

John Okada Centennial Programs

Co-presented by the North American Post, The Seattle Public Library Foundation, the Gary and Connie Kunis Foundation, and The Seattle Times.

All events are free and open to the public. Find more details and information about each program at spl.org/calendar.

  • The John Okada Centennial: A celebration of his life and work. Tuesday, September 26, 7:00 pm at the Central Library. To kick off the series, Frank Abe will present still-unseen images and stories of Okada’s life, and novelist Shawn Wong will share how he and his friends rediscovered and republished No-No Boy along with the story of Okada’s unfinished second novel. Karen Maeda Allman, literary agent and former Elliott Bay Book Company bookseller, will moderate.
  • From Page to Stage: Adapting John Okada’s No-No Boy for today’s theater. Tuesday, October 24, 7:00 pm at the Central Library. Co-presented by Seattle Rep. Frank Abe shares scenes from a new stage adaptation of No-No Boy that he’s currently developing and engages in a conversation with Seattle Rep Literary Manager and Dramaturg Paul Adolphsen on the challenges of bringing a novel published in 1957 to life for today’s theater audience. They will be joined by actors who will read scenes from the new adaptation and discuss them with the panelists.
  • The Postwar Seattle Chinatown of John Okada. Sunday, November 19, 2:00 pm at the Central Library. The sense of place in postwar Seattle Chinatown is strong in No-No Boy, and this final panel will examine the legacy of Japanese-owned hotels with family historian Shox Tokita, whose mother owned three; stories of Filipino residents and workers in Chinatown from former Seattle City Councilmember Dolores Sibonga, whose mother owned the Estigoy Café; and Dr. Marie Rose Wong, author of Building Tradition: Pan-Asian Seattle and Life in the Residential Hotels, who will discuss the history of single-room occupancy residential hotels in Chinatown and the threats they now face. The panel will be moderated by Emily Porcincula Lawsin, 4Culture Historic Preservation Program Manager.

About Frank Abe

Abe is co-editor of a new anthology, The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration, coming May 2024 from Penguin Classics, and lead author of the graphic novel, We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration (Chin Music Press), a finalist in Creative Nonfiction for the Washington State Book Award. He wrote and directed the award-winning PBS documentary “Conscience and the Constitution,” and won an American Book Award as co-editor with Greg Robinson and Floyd Cheung of John Okada: The Life & Rediscovered Work of the Author of ‘No-No Boy’ (University of Washington Press), authoring the first-ever biography of Okada. He studied in the Advanced Training Program of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, and has worked for KIRO Newsradio, the King County Executive, and the King County Council.