Celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month with Girls Write Now Teaching Artists and Honorees

Brown Girls
by Daphne Palasi Andreades

Penguin Random House

Daphne Palasi Andreades’ debut Brown Girls follows a group of friends and their immigrant families in Queens, New York. It is at once both a love letter to the borough and a fierce look at girlhood in the 21st Century. Following the friends as they come of age and enter the world, it is a powerful story of what it means to forge your path in the world as a young woman of color.

Daphne Palasi Andreades

Beautiful country
by Qian Julie Wang

Penguin Random House

The moving story of an undocumented child living in poverty in the richest country in the world. Inhabiting her childhood perspective with exquisite lyric clarity and unforgettable charm and strength, Qian Julie Wang has penned an essential American story about a family fracturing under the weight of invisibility, and a girl coming of age in the shadows, who never stops seeking the light.

Qian Julie Wang

MEET ME IN MUMBAI
by Sabina khan

Scholastic, Release Day: August 2, 2022

Seventeen-year-old Mira Fuller-Jensen was adopted by her moms at birth. All she knows about her biological mother is that she was a high-school student from India who returned to India after giving birth. Although Mira loves her moms, she’s always felt out of place in her mostly white community.

So when Mira finds an old box with letters addressed to her from her birth mother, she sees a way to finally capture that feeling of belonging. Her mother writes that if Mira can forgive her for having to give her up, she should find a way to travel to India for her eighteenth birthday and meet her. Mira knows she’ll always regret it if she doesn’t go. But is she actually ready for what she will learn?

Sabina Khan

MARIGOLD BREACH
PRODUCED BY diana M. pho

Diana M. Pho is a podcast producer, playwright, and Hugo Award-winning fiction editor, who led a Writing 360 Podcasting Workshop at Girls Write Now. Currently, Diana works as a story producer at Realm where she develops science fiction and fantasy stories, including Marigold Breach starring Jameela Jamil and Manny Jacinto. You can check out some of the podcasts featuring Diana on her site, or dig into some of her advice on writing #OwnVoices work in her piece for Writer’s Digest!

Diana M. Pho

Bounce back
by Misako Rocks!

Macmillan

Lilico, with the help of her cat, must learn to adjust to a new country, a new school, and new pressures in Bounce Back, a middle grade graphic novel from author/illustrator Misako Rocks! about finding your team and finding yourself. This is age-appropriate, kid-friendly manga for kids – both elementary and middle school – that tells a story about friendship, new beginnings, and doing what you love, no matter what.

Misako Rocks!

If I tell you the truth
by Jasmin Kaur

HarperCollins

Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Rupi Kaur, this heartrending story told in prose, poetry, and illustration weaves together the stories of a mother and daughter’s lives. Kiran flees her home in Punjab for a fresh start in Canada after a sexual assault leaves her pregnant. But overstaying her visa and living undocumented brings its own perils for both her and her daughter, Sahaara.

Jasmin Kaur

This is where the world ends
by Amy Zhang

HarperCollins

Janie and Micah have been best friends all their lives— only behind closed doors. Neighbors who complement each other in all the right ways, they have always been in each others’ lives and always plan to be, so long as no one finds out about their friendship. But when Janie goes missing, Micah is forced to question everything he knows about his best friend. Perfect for fans of young adult coming-of-age, this story told through both Janie and Micah’s eyes is sure to keep you up all night.

Amy Zhang

Other small histories
by Darien hsu gee

Poetry Society of America

Darien Hsu Gee’s Other Small Histories is a lush and lyrical chronicle of a walking back, a mesmerizing merge of research, vision and invention that gradually crafts a story of the women in her matriarchal line. Through prose poetry vignettes, she leads readers along her journey of revelation and discovery.

Darien Hsu Gee