Memoirs for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. Celebrate with these memoirs highlighting lived experiences by Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander authors. List created by a librarian at The Seattle Public Library, annotations as noted. (April 2024)
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Songs on Endless Repeat
This magnificent posthumous collection by So, who died in 2020, brings together the short story writer’s essays and excerpts from his unfinished novel. So’s distinctive voice blends mordant cultural criticism with a striking combination of humor, compassion, and insight. This is a bittersweet testament to an astounding talent. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
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The Backyard Bird Chronicles
Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club and Valley of Amazement, returns to nonfiction as she chronicles her turn toward nature — and particularly to birds — as a source of solace and respite. (Library Journal)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Year of the Tiger
Wong outlines her life as an advocate and educator in this stunning collection of essays, interviews, and artwork. Born to parents who emigrated from Hong Kong to Indiana in the 1970s, Wong describes how Chinese American culture and her progressive muscular dystrophy shaped her childhood. The combination of memoir, manifesto, scrapbook, confession, and rousing call to action make for a winning mix. This one's tough to forget. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City
In this delightful memoir in essays, Chinese American poet Wong reflects on her experiences growing up on the Jersey Shore as the child of immigrants and later life as an English professor. With a poet’s ear for language and a satirist’s eye for human foibles, Wong masterfully marries her personal story with larger questions about Chinese American identity. This is a winner. (Publishers Weekly)
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Where Rivers Part
...[a] gripping and compassionate account of [Yang's] mother’s escape from war-torn Laos. Yang writes much of the account from Tswb’s perspective, giving tender voice to her struggles with the competing demands of family duty and personal fulfillment. The results are illuminating, uplifting, and difficult to forget. (Publishers Weekly)
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Availability: All copies in use
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