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This early anthology of Filipino writing in English, originally published in 1953, features fiction, poetry, and critical essays. Short stories from early Filipino American pioneers like Bienvenido Santos and José García Villa are featured, as are poems from socialist writer Carlos Bulosan, who was deeply involved in the American labor movement. The critical essays included explore the development of and influences on Filipino writing, and biographical sketches provide background information for each of the contributors.

This collection of short stories takes the reader across the world, from the year 1919 going into the present day. Baldwin focuses on the journeys of several Sikh women who are struggling to hold onto their religious identity and assert their rights. In their home country they are faced with anti-Sikh sentiment, while in the New World they deal with new fears related to “otherness,” as well the lingering effects of colonialism. Baldwin’s characters have a variety of reactions to the effects of modernity or Westernization, ranging from oppressive silence to using the power of oppression to become free.

In this debut poetry collection, Chen examines her Taiwanese American identity, exploring histories that have been erased by colonization and emigration. Through fragmentary lyric poems, she develops a narrative of protest and self-discovery, while crying out for unity within the Taiwanese American community. Chen’s work is accessible to those readers who don’t know much of Taiwanese history, but it is also deeply affecting for those who are familiar with it. Ultimately, the history of this nation resists erasure through the author’s powerful words.

In this epic novel of Native Hawaiian culture, author Kiana Davenport uses the stories of her native land as the foundation for a tale of love, tragedy, and survival. The novel begins during World War II with the Meahuna family, and a man searching for the soulmate torn from him by war. From there, the reader is taken through the intervening years to Hawaii’s hard-won statehood, and the mesmerizing story of rich characters who find themselves redeemed by the spiritual power and beauty of their home country.

Where We Once Belonged adopts a traditional Samoan form of storytelling known as su’ifefiloi, and through a series of linked episodes follows Alofa Filiga, a young girl navigating puberty under her village’s restrictive mores, while at the same time searching for her identity. This work ultimately challenges the prejudiced narratives put forth by Western anthropologists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries regarding the Samoan people and culture. Figiel was awarded the prestigious Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 1997, and its American publication marked the first time a Samoan woman had ever been published in this country.

This anthology broke new ground upon its release in 1993, and retains importance as a diverse and comprehensive collection of Asian American fiction writers who have become mighty figures in this country’s literary canon. Edited by novelist Jessica Hagedorn—an American Book Award-winning writer, poet, and playwright—the collection starts with pioneer José García Villa and his 1933 short story “Untitled Story,” and goes all the way to Meena Alexander and her “Manhattan Music,” which looks at the 1990s New York art scene. The characters in these stories are vibrantly alive and complex, and while they fight displacement and assimilation, they also live their daily lives as they love, weather hardships, and worry about the future.

An immigrant from Pakistan, Changez is living the American Dream: he graduates at the top of his class at Princeton, immediately gets a job at an elite valuation firm, and begins to date a prominent Manhattan socialite while enjoying the vibrancy of New York City. Then the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 take place, and his life is completely changed. New York no longer seems to be his city, and his relationship starts to falter. He suddenly is forced to confront his identity—as a Pakistani, American, and Muslim—and where his allegiances lie.

It has always seemed to Belly like anything that is good or magical in life happens between June and August, so she has always measured her life in summers. That’s when she goes with her family to the beach house, where she gets to see Conrad and Jeremiah. As a young girl, she thought of them as brothers, but as she grew older, she began to see them in a more romantic light. Suddenly, one wonderful and terrible summer comes along when her crushes actually notice her in the way she has noticed them. And that’s when everything changes.

When author Le Ly Hayslip was just 12 years old, the Vietnam War was raging, and her village of Ky La was engulfed in violence between U.S. troops and the Viet Cong. Hayslip was recruited by the latter as a spy, and before she even turned 16 she was imprisoned, tortured, and raped. Even though many of her family members were killed, she maintained a faith in humanity, and decided to come back to Vietnam 20 years after she managed to escape. Hayslip reunited with her remaining family, and reflected on the horrors she lived through, as detailed in this amazing and courageous memoir.

In this novel by the acclaimed author of The Kite Runner, two Afghani women from different generations are suddenly brought together by war and loss. Even though they have opposing views about love and family, Mariam and Laila become like mother and daughter as danger escalates on the streets of Kabul. It becomes readily apparent to them that love is the key to survival in times of strife, and they find themselves motivated towards stunning and heroic acts of self-sacrifice to protect each other and their families. Their relationship changes not only their own lives, but the lives of the next generation as well.

During her youth, Kathy lived at a private school in the English countryside where she was firmly sheltered from the outside world, and was made to believe that she was special. In fact, she and her peers were told that their well-being was crucial to society at large. Kathy thought she had put her schooling behind her when two of her old schoolmates suddenly come back into her life. She newly befriends Ruth, and falls in love all over again with her old crush, Tommy. She begins to think about how, underneath the idyllic façade of Hailsham, there was a certain level of misunderstanding and discord, hinting at a dark secret. The three alums face this truth together, and contemplate the surprising effect their schooldays have had on their adult lives.

In Georgia, a Japanese American family struggles to build their new life after living in a Japanese community in Iowa. In the Deep South, people are not so accepting of them, and tend to stop and stare as they pass by on the street. The oldest daughter Katie Takeshima struggles to look beyond tomorrow when faced with this new and harsh world, but her sister Lynn manages to see kira-kira—“glittering”—in things. The sky glitters, and so do people’s eyes. When Lynn becomes terminally ill, Katie is left to convince the family that there is still kira-kira¬ in the future. Cynthia Kadohata won the Newberry Medal for this novel in 2005.

After the Beats have left, but before the hippies have arrived, Wittman Ah Sing becomes an unstoppable force in San Francisco as its resident hipster poet. A graduate of University of California, Berkeley, his major artistic dream is to write an epic drama that spans both America and China. At the same time, he struggles to balance his Chinese ancestry with the American culture he has grown up with, and even tends to look down on the Chinese immigrant families he meets in San Francisco. Maxine Hong Kingston won the PEN West Award for this novel, and was presented with the National Humanities Medal for her contributions to American literature in 1997.

In this debut collection of stories, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000, Lahiri tackles love beyond nations and generations. Her characters go beyond the barriers of India and America seeking love, while coping with the feeling and implications of being a “foreigner.” As their emotional journeys are charted, the reader can’t help but be affected by Lahiri’s universal eloquence. In 2014, she was awarded the prestigious National Humanities Medal for her immense literary contributions

In The City in Which I Love You, the immigrant sensibility is expressed through poems of a mysterious and evocative beauty. Lee conjures up reminiscences of his childhood and his father, who was the personal physician of Mao Zedong (and his great grandfather was the first president of the Republic of China). His complicated and prominent family history weaves a web of memory that is startlingly honest, and in terms of style is influenced by classical Chinese poetry. In 1990, this work was the Lamont Poetry Selection, and in 1995 Lee won the American Book Award.

In this novel, the attendees of a wedding in Bombay look back on the idealism of their youth, and the changes that have come about since that time. Adi Patel slowly fell into alcoholism, Dosamai developed a penchant for ferocious gossip, and Soli Contractor was faced with heartbreak and betrayal. Rusi Bilimoria is an observer during this conversation, and suddenly finds himself taking a look back in disillusionment at his business career, and tries to make sense of the life events that led him there. Will it be possible for him to keep this fraying community together?

In this children’s story by the acclaimed author of The Joy Luck Club and The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Ying-Ying sails with her family on Tai Lake during the Moon Festival, and listens to her grandmother Nai-Nai tell a riveting story about the Moon Lady. When Nai-Nai was a little girl growing up in China, she was granted a secret wish by the Moon Lady, and her granddaughter wants to have a wish granted, too. Out of impatience Ying-Ying falls out of the boat, and begins an exciting quest to make her dreams come true.

This debut work by Ocean Vuong was one of the most celebrated works of poetry of 2016, making several “best of” lists that year. In an achingly candid fashion, it draws from personal trauma, depression, violence, queer sexuality, and poverty, making Vuong’s words powerfully relatable to the “othered” reader. The startling images drawn by the poet of his family’s past history with violence and discrimination during the Vietnam War era are as vivid as photographs snapped just yesterday. Even though a great deal of pain is explored in this collection, it is ultimately transformed into clarity, and the joyful side of life shines through. In 2017, Ocean Vuong was awarded the coveted T.S. Eliot Prize for this volume.

This memoir, originally published in 1945, recounts the first 24 years of author Jade Snow Wong’s life, covering both its struggles and achievements. She recounts her upbringing in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the 1920s and 30s, using a third-person singular style. While her father worked in a factory, Wong was expected to help her mother with her younger brothers and sisters, and was taught to respect and obey elders. Any infraction in etiquette would inevitably lead to punishment. In school, she was more fully exposed to American culture, which she found to be in confusion with the rigid teachings of her parents. By the time she went to college, she began to develop an identity separate from her parents’ expectations (which they firmly opposed), and then as an artist she found herself completely, while managing to gain recognition from her family.

During the Second World War, 12-year-old Yuki Sakane was relocated to an internment camp in Utah with her family. While the war is still raging on, the family is released, but they are prohibited from returning to Berkeley, California. Having little choice, they resettle in Salt Lake City where they are faced with strong anti-Japanese sentiment. When the war ends in 1945, they are allowed to return to California, but they unfortunately don’t escape the discrimination and prejudice they faced during the war in Salt Lake City. Author Yoshiko Uchida was herself imprisoned in an internment camp, which lends a great deal of realism and emotion to Journey Home.

In a lyrical fashion, Japanese American illustrator and author Allen Say presents the cross-cultural experience of his family in this children’s story, building on the reminiscences of his grandfather, who sailed to America many years ago. There, he found himself torn by a love for his home country and his new homeland, and often wanted to be in both places at once. This universal emotion was also experienced by Say when his family moved to America from Japan decades later. In 1994, Grandfather’s Journey won the Caldecott Medal for its illustrations.

Born into a wealthy Brahmin family, Tara, Padma, and Parvati had a privileged upbringing in Calcutta. In spite of the strong influence of their traditionalist grandmother, the intelligent and artistic sisters wish to leave the constraints of Indian society behind, which provides few freedoms to women. They all choose to rebel in their own, individual ways, which leads each of them to emigrate to different continents and circumstances. Though this places an unavoidable strain on their family ties, it also strengthens them, as the sisters explore new cultures and identities. Mukherjee also wrote a sequel to this novel, entitled The Tree Bride.

In this volume of dramatic monologues, greed and its usual targets—sex, money, power, love—take center stage. The collection starts off with a powerful piece about the 1992 Los Angeles uprising, and continuously explores how greed infuses American racial and sexual politics. Whether Ai is evoking Jack Ruby, a woman suffering from spousal abuse, or people in dead-end relationships, she always manages to get inside their heads and bring them to life. She is never afraid to address those horrors of American life that make headlines every day.

When Japanese Americans were commanded to enter internment camps following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, not everyone complied. As he contemplates a line drawing of the Heart Mountain camp, through several poems Lawson Fusao Inada recalls the resisters who lived there, and how they refused to comply with the internment on constitutional grounds. He also pays tribute to the Japanese American community that he grew up in, his love for the natural landscape of Oregon, and various and sundry other topics. Whether the poet is talking about internment camps, Buddhism, or Charlie Parker, he always writes richly, nourished by the past, electrified by the present, and hopeful for the future.

Poet Richard Hugo noted of Cathy Song that she seems to possess a patient and timeless sensibility in her approach to language, like an ancestral gift that is passed down through countless generations. In this collection, that sensibility is well-reflected, where the poems tend to focus on those minor moments that have major repercussions for the rest of one’s life. Song takes the reader through childhood and the family existence in order to draw attention to those small pleasures in life that are meant to be savored, and then recalled years down the line.