| Fusion StoriesMay is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM), or as others like
to call it, May. (Eh, that sounded funnier in my head.) Anyway, there's
this group of AA writers who all have books coming out this year, and
they've gotten together to help raise awareness about AA literature
during APAHM by forming a web site called Fusion Stories. The authors
involved with this group include: Lisa Yee, An Na, Cherry Cheva, Mitali
Perkins, and-you know, as I type this I realize I have the boringest
name of the bunch. Cherry Cheva?! What a great name...sigh. For most of
my adolescence I was deeply disappointed my parents hadn't named me
"Striker" or something cool like that, but I digress. Since my second
novel Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before
(Hyperion, Sept 2008) is coming out this fall, I was lucky to be
included, and anyway here's a link to the site, which includes profiles
of the authors and their forthcoming or just published books, along
with interviews, etc.
I'll be doing some Fusion Stories-related events with these authors
this summer and fall--as of now I'm scheduled for the following events:
June 5th, 2008, time TBA: Asian American Writers Workshop in NYC
June 14th, 2008, time TBA: New York Public Library
October 8th, 2008, time TBA: National Association for Multicultural Education Conference, Hartford, CT
Happy Asian Pacific Heritage Month, y'all!
Here's the press release:
CONTACT:
website: www.fusionstories.com
email: press@fusionstories.com
FUSION STORIES: New Novels For Young Readers To
Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (May 2008)
Newton, Ma, April 2, 2008 — Ten new contemporary novels by Asian
Americans aren’t traditional tales set in Asia nor stories about coming
to America for the first time. They’re written by authors who
understand two-time Newbery Honor Book author Lawrence Yep’s
(Dragonwings and Dragon’s Gate) removal of the ethnic qualifier before
his vocation. “I think of myself principally as a writer,” Yep told the
International Reading Association’s The Dragon Lode. “I often write
about my experiences as a Chinese American, but I’ve also written about
faraway worlds. Writing is a special way of seeing.”
Without a doubt, an Asian American vision has moved into the
mainstream of the children’s literary world. In 1994, only 65 of the
5,500 children’s books published featured Asian American authors. Last
year, that number doubled. Some of these have become national
bestsellers that are guaranteed a place on bookshelves for years to
come. Linda Sue Park (A Single Shard) and Cynthia Kadohata (Kira Kira)
each won the prestigious Newbery Medal, while Allen Say (Grandfather’s
Journey) took home a Caldecott Prize. An Na (A Step From Heaven) won
the Printz, an award for young adult novels, and Gene Luen Yang
garnered a National Book Award for his graphic novel, American Born
Chinese.
In 2008, a wave of middle grade novels (ages 7-11) written by Asian
Americans is already catching the attention of readers, teachers,
librarians, and parents – and not just within multicultural circles.
Children’s literature experts are calling Grace Lin’s Year of the Rat
(sequel to the popular Year of the Dog) a “classic in the making” along
the lines of Besty-Tacy. Janet Wong’s forthcoming novel Minn and Jake's
Almost Terrible Summer explores the joys of vacation and friendship,
with Jake divulging that he’s a “quarpa,” or one-quarter Korean. Winner
of the Sid Fleischman humor award, author Lisa Yee makes kids (and
adults) laugh out loud with bestselling stories like Millicent Min:
Girl Genius and her newest title, Good Luck, Ivy. When it comes to
books like these, as Newbery winner Linda Sue Park told author Cynthia
Leitich Smith (Tantalize) during an on-line chat: “At last it seems
we’re getting ready to go to stories where a person’s ethnicity is a
part but not the sum of them.”
New releases for teens, too, aren’t mainly immigrant stories or
traditional tales retold. These YA novels deal with universal themes
such as a straight-A teen struggling with a cheating scandal at her
school (She’s So Money by Cherry Cheva), a promising athlete coping with a snowboarding injury (Girl Overboard by Justina Chen Headley), and a Pakistani-born blogger whose father is about to become President (First Daughter: White House Rules by Mitali Perkins). An Na’s The Fold,
a novel about a teen considering plastic surgery to change the shape of
her eyelids, speaks to all who long to be beautiful, and art-loving
teens far and wide will connect with Joyce Lee Wong’s novel-in-verse Seeing Emily. Paula Yoo,
a one-time writer for People magazine and television hits like The West
Wing, fuses her pop culture savvy and love of music in Good Enough, a novel about a violinist in rebellion. Her brother, David Yoo, connected with hormone-crazed nerds of every race in his funny novel Girls For Breakfast and is offering his fans the forthcoming Stop Me if You've Heard This One Before.
Founder of readergirlz,
a literacy initiative for teens, award-winning author Justina Chen
Headley notes that these books are relished by readers from many
different backgrounds. “There are a ton of interesting cultural trends
that make it cool to read about Asian American characters,” she says.
“Take manga and anime, for instance. Or Gwen Stefani’s harujuku girls.
Mainstream, popular celebrities from actors to athletes are Asian
American, and this is filtering into YA and middle grade novels.”
Dr. Sylvia Vardell, Ph.D., a professor at the School of Library and
Information Services at Texas Woman’s University, isn’t surprised
either by the growing appetite for books featuring protagonists of
every race: “Most kids live with ethnic and cultural diversity
everyday. It just makes sense that books for teens would reflect this
too.”
These stories continue to resonate with Asian American readers as well. Lisa Yee
remembers the frustration of not finding many books about American
girls like her. “When I grew up, there was no fiction featuring
contemporary Asian Americans, unless of course the book was about the
struggle of immigrants,” she says. Thanks to exciting changes in
children’s book publishing, it’s a different world for today’s young
readers of every cultural heritage with many choices when it comes to
novels.
This year’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month begins May 1, 2008, and ten authors are banding together to offer FUSION STORIES (www.fusionstories.com), a menu of delectable next-gen hot-off-the-press novels for middle readers and young adults. FUSION STORIES' critically acclaimed authors so far include Cherry Cheva (Los Angeles, CA), Justina Chen Headley (Seattle, WA), Grace Lin (Boston, MA), An Na (Montpelier, VT), Mitali Perkins (Boston, MA), Janet Wong (Princeton, NJ), Joyce Lee Wong (Los Angeles, CA), Lisa Yee (South Pasadena, CA), David Yoo (Boston, MA), and Paula Yoo (Los Angeles, CA).
FUSION STORIES
aims to be a helpful resource for parents, educators, and young
readers, so if you know of a novel that (1) is for middle readers or
teens, (2) was published in 2007-2008 by a traditional publishing
house, (3) features an Asian American protagonist, and (4) is set
primarily in contemporary America, please send a .jpg of the cover, a
.jpg of the author, one or two reviews, and a brief description of the
novel here. FUSION STORIES would be delighted to add titles and authors to the site.
A press kit package (available at FUSION STORIES, www.fusionstories.com) includes downloads, bios of FUSION STORIES authors,
information on their books, and conversations with experts about Asian
American literature for young readers. For more information, review
copies, or interview requests with any of the authors, please contact press@fusionstories.com.
|
