By Sophia Whittemore
AsAmNews Intern
Let me discuss a little movement that can help any Asian authors on the lookout for one day publishing their work.
Let me break this down really quickly. Top YA book series are facing the same problems that Hollywood movies are. Mainly, the issue is that people of color are underrepresented in them. The main characters, or MCs, of many best-selling novels are white and straight. It’s an issue that the literary community is trying to remedy as the popularity of #OwnVoices and #WeNeedDiverseBooks is increasing.
In the book industry, it basically boils down to this. We need more Asian and POC voices in the literary business. We need more characters that our kids can read that look just like them, love just like them, and deal with the same cultural/religious/struggling issues as they do.
We need the next Harry Potter to feature more POC characters. We need Asian and Pacific Island communities to have characters just like them in their libraries, populating the pages of the next NYT bestseller. We need more Katniss Everdeens in our community. We need more hapa voices. We need more kids represented who can win wars and fight battles all on the page and screen. We need diversity inclusion in all manners of books: romance, fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and adventure.
At the end of the day, we need role models between the pages of a book.
And this literary movement is just the beginning of bringing about that awareness to the whole world.
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#WeNeedDiverseBooks – Asian Representation Needed Between the Pages of a Book
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RE: #WeNeedDiverseBooks-Asian Representation Needed Between the Pages of a Book: I shall fulfill my destiny, and answer this call for more Asian representation in the humanities.
RE: #WeNeedDiverseBooks-Asian Representation Needed between the Pages of a Book: Thank you for a great post! You speak the truth, for sure.
For your readers:
Contemporary YA by and about AAPIers out this year:
I BELIEVE IN A THING CALLED LOVE by Maurene Goo
IT’S NOT LIKE IT’S A SECRET by Misa Sugiura
ALWAYS AND FOREVER, LARA JEAN by Jenny Han
STARFISH by Akemi Dawn Bowman
NOTEWORTHY by Riley Redgate
WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI by Sandhya Menon
A GIRL LIKE THAT by Tanaz Bhathena
THE SECRET OF A HEART NOTE by Stacey Lee
ENTER TITLE HERE by Rahul Kanakia
AN INFINITE NUMBER OF PARALLEL UNIVERSES by Randy Ribay
Fantasy YA by and about AAPIers (out this year and last)
WINTERSONG by Sarah Jae-Jones
THE FLAME IN THE MIST trilogy by Renee Ahdieh
THE TIMEKEEPER trilogy by Tara Sim
THE READER trilogy by Trac Chee
AN EMBER IN THE ASHES by Sabaa Tahir
A CROWN OF WISHES trilogy by Roshani Chokshi
THE CROWN’S GAME trilogy by Evelyn Skye
THE ABYSS SURROUNDS US duology by Emily Skrutskie
LAST STAR BURNING trilogy by Caitlin Sangster
I may have missed a few. And these are a drop in the bucket compared to what’s out there by and about white folks. But things are looking up.
RE: #WeNeedDiverseBooks-Asian Representation Needed Between the Pages of a Book: also (how could I forget?)
HEROINE COMPLEX series by Sarah Kuhn
NOT YOUR SIDEKICK by C.B. Lee
FOREST OF A THOUSAND LANTERNS by Julie C. Dao
WANT by Cindy Pon
A LINE IN THE DARK by Malinda Lo
THE ROSE SOCIETY triolgy, WARCROSS series and more by Marie Lu