Celebrating Speculative Authors of Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage

With the close of May, we find ourselves rounding out the end of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and we’d like to take a moment to recognize speculative authors of Asian and/or Pacific Islander heritage, across nationality.

There are, of course, far more authors to celebrate than we could ever hope to highlight in one blog post. Still, we think it’s better to name some folks than to name no one at all. Below are a few authors of Asian and/or Pacific Islander heritage we’d like to share for recommended reading. (Updated periodically.)

Clarion West alumni:

• Breakpoint by Betsy Aoki (CW ’16)
• Waypoint Kangaroo by Curtis C. Chen (CW ’14)
• The Devourers by Indrapramit Das (CW ’12)
• Angelfall by Susan Ee (CW ’01)
• Wing of the Locust by Joel Donato Ching Jacob (CW ’21)
• “Next Station, Shibuya” by Iori Kusano (CW ’17)
• Peasprout Chen, Future Legend of Skate and Sword by Henry Lien (CW ’12)
• “Where Will You Place Us When We Are Dead?” by Monte Lin (CW ’19)
• In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu (CW ’16)
• “The Novelization of Welcome Back Mr. McDonald” by Ted Mahsun (CW ’18)
• Midnight Doorways by Usman Malik (CW ’13)
• His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light by Mimi Mondal (CW ’15)
• “Dick Pig” by Ian Muneshwar (CW ’14)
• Alien Virus Love Disaster: Stories by Abbey Mei Otis (CW ’10)
• “The Trolley Solution” by Shiv Ramdas (CW ’16)
• “Every Single Brain” by Yang-Yang Wang (CW ’14)
• The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang (CW ’13)
• Seven Wonders of a Once and Future World by Caroline M. Yoachim (CW ’06)
• On Fragile Waves by E. Lily Yu (CW ’13)

Other authors we admire (including some Clarion West instructors!):

• Dean Francis Alfar
• Samit Basu
• Nadia Bulkin
• Ted Chiang
• Yangsze Choo
• Hiromi Goto
• Kazuo Ishiguro
• Cassandra Khaw
• Fonda Lee
• Yoon Ha Lee
• Cixin Liu
• Ken Liu
• Rae Mariz
• Maggie Shen King
• Alyssa Wong

Again, we know we are leaving out a vast quantity of names, but we hope this gives folks some exciting books to check out.

On a more somber note, we also want to re-share our 2021 post in solidarity with the Asian American and Pacific Islander community against racist violence. The post includes resources, both online and local to the Seattle area. We wish that our past statement were obsolete now, but we know that anti-Asian violence is still happening and critical to end. We appreciate all the writers out there who are helping to create toward a better, brighter world.

(Last updated: 5/18/23.)