Join our team in celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage. The month of May serves as a time to honor and recognize the culture, history and achievements of these communities.
Authors Unbound works with many talented and insightful AAPI authors. These authors can reach a range of audiences – writing everything from children’s literature, to historical nonfiction and fantasy. They bring education, curiosity, and bright wisdom to all speaking engagements.
Check out these wonderful options and get planning for your AAPI event!
Rebecca F. Kuang is the award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Poppy War trilogy, Babel: An Arcane History, and most recently, Yellowface – which grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. It is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable. Rebecca is currently pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literature at Yale, where she studies diaspora, contemporary Chinese literature, and Asian American literature.
Jamie Ford‘s debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, spent two years on the New York Times bestseller list and went on to win the 2010 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. His most recent novel, The Many Daughters of Afong Moy, was an instant NYT bestseller and a Read with Jenna Book Club pick. His work has been translated into thirty-five languages.
Julia Lee is a Korean American writer, scholar, and teacher. Her newest book is Biting the Hand: Growing Up Asian in Black and White America, a passionate, no-holds-barred memoir about the Asian American experience in a nation defined by racial stratification. She is an associate professor of English at Loyola Marymount University, where she teaches Black and Asian American literature.
Angie Kim’s debut novel, Miracle Creek, won the Edgar Award, the ITW Thriller Award, the Strand Critics’ Award, and the Pinckley Prize and was named one of the best books of the year by Time, The Washington Post, Kirkus, and the Today show. Happiness Falls, her second novel, is a Barnes and Noble pick and was released September 2023 – it’s an extraordinary story about a biracial Korean American family in Virginia whose lives are upended when their beloved father and husband goes missing.
Jean Kwok is the award-winning, New York Times and international bestselling author of The Leftover Woman, Searching for Sylvie Lee, Girl in Translation and Mambo in Chinatown. Leftover Woman is a twisting, suspenseful and surprisingly poignant exploration of identity and belonging, motherhood and family. Her work has been published in twenty countries and taught in universities, colleges and high schools across the world.
Patricia Park is the author of Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim, an incisive, laugh-out-loud, provocative read about feeling like a misfit caught between very different worlds. She is also the author of the adult novel, Re Jane, a Korean American reimagining of Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Park has a new YA novel coming in May 2024, called What’s Eating Jackie-O, about a Korean American teen who tries to balance her dream to become a chef with the cultural expectations of her family when she enters the competitive world of a TV cooking show.
Jack Wong (黃雋喬) is an award winning children’s book author and illustrator. Jack’s debut picture book, When You Can Swim (Scholastic), received the 2023 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award in Picture Books and the 2023 Governor General’s Literary Award in Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books. His second picture book, The Words We Share (Annick Press), is currently a nominee for the Ontario Library Association’s Blue Spruce Award. His other forthcoming titles include All That Grows (Groundwood, 2024), and an untitled picture book biography on acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma (with author James Howe, Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2025).
Michelle Sterling is the author of When Lola Visits, illustrated by Aaron Asis, which is an ALA Notable Children’s Book of the Year, and A Sweet New Year for Ren, illustrated by Dung Ho. Michelle’s most recent book Maribel’s Year was illustrated by Sarah Gonzales, which celebrates the special connection between father and daughter in a gorgeously evocative picture book, recounting the year a little girl and her mother spend in America while waiting for her father to join them from the Philippines.
Helena Ku Rhee is a writer of books for kids and the young at heart. She’s the author of Sora’s Seashells, Rosa’s Song as well as its companion book The Paper Kingdom (both illustrated by Pascal Campion and published by Penguin Random House), which was a #1 Indie Bestseller and included on many year-end Best Books lists. Helena’s upcoming titles include The Turtle Ship and The No-Shoes Home (forthcoming 2025).
Emiko Jean is a New York Times best-selling author of adult and young adult fiction. Her books have been published in over thirty languages. Emiko’s work has been featured on Good Morning America as a GMA book club pick, by Reese Witherspoon as a young adult book club pick, and in publications such as: Marie Claire, Entertainment Weekly, Time, Cosmopolitan, Shondaland and Bustle.
