AAPI Reading List 2021
Lifting up Asian-American and Pacific Islander expertise and voices in literature
It is critical to lift up Asian-American & Pacific Islander expertise and voice in literature. Thanks to the work of AAPI authors, the world can better understand both the brilliance and triumphs of such a rich community. The Solutions Project is excited to share some of the most accomplished literary solutionaries for past and present.
The Properties of Perpetual Light
Julian Aguon
The Properties of Perpetual Light is an homage to the work of the activist-writer, which author Julian Aguon describes as the work of bearing witness, wrestling with the questions of one’s day, telling children the truth. With prose and poetry both bracing and quiet, Aguon weaves together stories from his childhood in the villages of Guam with searing political commentary.
I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir
Malaka Gharib
Malaka Gharib’s triumphant graphic memoir brings to life her teenage antics and illuminates earnest questions about identity and culture, while providing thoughtful insight into the lives of modern immigrants and the generation of millennial children they raised. Malaka’s story is a heartfelt tribute to the American immigrants who have invested their future in the promise of the American dream.
America Is in the Heart
Carlos Bulosan
A 1946 Filipino American social classic about the United States in the 1930s from the perspective of a Filipino migrant laborer who endures racial violence and struggles with the paradox of the American dream, with a foreword by novelist Elaine Castillo.
Oceanic
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
With inquisitive flair, Aimee Nezhukumatathil creates a thorough registry of the earth’s wonderful and terrible magic. In her fourth collection of poetry, she studies forms of love as diverse and abundant as the ocean itself.
Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace
Vandana Shiva
World-renowned environmental activist and physicist Vandana Shiva calls for a radical shift in the values that govern democracies, condemning the role that unrestricted capitalism has played in the destruction of environments and livelihoods.
Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis
Vandana Shiva
In Soil Not Oil, Vandana Shiva explains that a world beyond dependence on fossil fuels and globalization is both possible and necessary. Condemning industrial agriculture as a recipe for ecological and economic disaster, Shiva champions the small, independent farm
IEP Jaltok, Volume 80: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter
Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner
As the seas rise, the fight intensifies to save the Pacific Ocean’s Marshall Islands from being devoured by the waters around them. At the same time, activists are raising their poetic voices against decades of colonialism, environmental destruction, and social injustice. Iep Jāltok will make history as the first published book of poetry written by a Marshallese author, and it ushers in an important new voice for justice.
Undoing Border Imperialism
Harsha Walia
Undoing Border Imperialism combines academic discourse, lived experiences of displacement, and movement-based practices into an exciting new book. By reformulating immigrant rights movements within a transnational analysis of capitalism, labor exploitation, settler colonialism, state building, and racialized empire, it provides the alternative conceptual frameworks of border imperialism and decolonization.
The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century
Grace Lee Boggs
In this powerful, deeply humanistic book, Grace Lee Boggs, a legendary figure in the struggle for justice in America, shrewdly assesses the current crisis–political, economical, and environmental–and shows how to create the radical social change we need to confront new realities.
Living for Change: An Autobiography
Grace Lee Boggs
No one can tell in advance what form a movement will take. Grace Lee Boggs’s fascinating autobiography traces the story of a woman who transcended class and racial boundaries to pursue her passionate belief in a better society.
