The Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature (APAAL) are a set of literary awards presented annually by the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA). The APALA was formed in 1980 "to create an organization that would address the needs of Asian/Pacific American librarians and those who serve Asian/Pacific American communities." [1] The Association was the successor to the Asian American Librarians Caucus (AALC), a discussion group within the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Library Outreach Services that focused on providing library service to minority communities and on supporting minority librarians. The APALA incorporated in 1981 (in Illinois) and became part of the ALA in 1982. [1]
The awards honor books about Asian/Pacific Americans, their history and culture. Categories have included fiction and non-fiction for adults, picture/illustrated books, and children's/young-adult literature. Writers and artists do not need to be of Asian or Pacific Islander ancestry, but they must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents, the books must be about Asian/Pacific American heritage, and must have been written in English and published for general release within the States. [2]
| Years | Category | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Adult Fiction | T. C. Huo | Land of Smiles | Winner | [3] |
| Adult Nonfiction | Loung Ung | First They Killed My Father | Winner | ||
| Children and Young Adult Literature | Janet S. Wong, illustrated by Bo Jia | The Trip Back Home | Winner | ||
| 2001–2003 | Adult Fiction | Yann Martel | Life of Pi | Winner | [4] |
| Picture Book | Janet S. Wong, illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine | Apple Pie 4 July | Winner | ||
| Tim Myer, illustrated by Robert Roth | Tanuki's Gift | Honor | |||
| Yin, illustrated by Chris Soentpiet | Coolies | Honor | |||
| Children and Young Adult Literature | An Na | A Step from Heaven | Winner | ||
| Tanuja Desai Hidier | Born Confused | Honor | |||
| Ken Mochizuki | Beacon Hill Boys | Honor | |||
| Linda Sue Park | A Single Shard | Honor | |||
| 2005–2006 | Adult Fiction | Chang-Rae Lee | Aloft | Winner | [5] |
| Amy Tan | Saving Fish from Drowning | Honor | |||
| Lisa See | Snow Flower and the Secret Fan | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Linda Sue Park, illustrated by Julie Downing | The Firekeeper's Son | Winner | ||
| Paula Yoo, illustrated by Dom Lee | Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story | Honor | |||
| Frederick Lipp, illustrated by Jason Gaillard | Bread Song | Honor | |||
| Youth Literature | Cynthia Kadohata | Kira-Kira | Winner | ||
| Andrea Cheng | Shanghai Messenger | Honor | |||
| Linda Sue Park | Project Mulberry | Honor | |||
| 2006–2007 | Adult Fiction | Da Chen | Brothers | Winner | [6] |
| John Hamamura | Color of the Sea | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Anne Sibley O'Brien | The Legend of Hong Kil Dong: The Robin Hood of Korea | Winner | ||
| Yin, illustrated by Chris Soentpiet | Brothers | Honor | |||
| Youth Literature | Justina Chen Headley | Nothing But the Truth | Winner | ||
| Grace Lin | Year of the Dog | Honor | |||
| 2007–2008 | Adult Nonfiction | Jean Pfaelzer | Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans | Winner | [7] |
| Linda Furiya | Bento Box in The Heartland: My Japanese Girlhood in Whitebread America | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Ellie Crowe, illustrated by Richard Waldrep | Surfer of the Century | Winner | ||
| Lynne Barasch | Hiromi's Hands | Honor | |||
| Youth Literature | Kelly Easton | Hiroshima Dreams | Winner | ||
| Kashmira Sheth | Keeping Corner | Honor | |||
| 2008–2009 | Adult Fiction | Jhumpa Lahiri | Unaccustomed Earth | Winner | [8] |
| Fae Myenne Ng | Steer Toward Rock | Honor | |||
| Adult Nonfiction | Jennifer 8. Lee | The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food | Winner | ||
| Andrew X. Pham | Eaves of Heaven: A Life in Three Wars | Honor | |||
| Kao Kalia Yang | The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Mark Reibstein, illustrated by Ed Young | Wabi Sabi | Winner | ||
| Kashmira Sheth, illustrated by Yoshiko Jaeggi | Monsoon Afternoon | Honor | |||
| Youth Literature | Many Ly | Roots and Wings | Winner | ||
| Naomi Hirahara | 1001 Cranes | Honor | |||
| Paula Yoo | Good Enough | Honor | |||
| 2009–2010 | Adult Fiction | Jamie Ford | Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet | Winner | [9] |
| Lisa See | Shanghai Girls | Honor | |||
| Adult Nonfiction | Bonnie Tsui | American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods | Winner | ||
| Lane Ryo Hirabayashi | Japanese American Resettlement: Through the Lens | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore, illustrated by Kristi Valiant | Cora Cooks Pancit | Winner | ||
| Malathi Michelle Iyengar, illustrated by Jamel Akib | Tan to Tamarind | Honor | |||
| Youth Literature | Sung Woo | Everything Asian | Winner | ||
| Ching Yeung Russell | Tofu Quilt | Honor | |||
| 2010–2011 | Adult Fiction | Karen Tei Yamashita | I Hotel | Winner | [10] |
| Monique Truong | Bitter in the Mouth | Honor | |||
| Adult Nonfiction | Erika Lee and Judy Yung | Angel Island: Immigration Gateway to America | Winner | ||
| Yunte Huang | Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History | Honor | |||
| Neela Vaswani | You Have Given Me a Country | Honor | |||
| Children's Literature | Margi Preus | Heart of a Samurai | Winner | ||
| Mitali Perkins | Bamboo People | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Ann Malaspina, illustrated by Doug Chayka | Yasmin's Hammer | Winner | ||
| Roseanne Thong, illustrated by Eujin Kim Neilan | Fly Free | Honor | |||
| Young Adult Literature | N. H. Senzai | Shooting Kabul | Winner | ||
| Barbara Bazaldua | A Boy of Heart Mountain | Honor | |||
| 2011–2012 | Adult Fiction | Amy Waldman | The Submission | Winner | [11] |
| R. Zamora Linmark | Leche | Honor | |||
| Adult Nonfiction | Ying-Ying Chang | The Woman Who Could Not Forget: Iris Chang Before and Beyond The Rape of Nanking | Winner | ||
| Shafiqur Rahman | The Bangladeshi Diaspora in the United States after 9/11: From Obscurity to High Visibility | Honor | |||
| Children's Literature | Wendy Wan-Long Shang | The Great Wall of Lucy Wu | Winner | ||
| Sheela Chari | Vanished | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Ed Young | The House Baba Built: An Artist's Childhood in China | Winner | ||
| F. Zia, illustrated by Ken Min | Hot Hot Roti for Kaka-ji | Honor | |||
| Young Adult Literature | Holly Thompson | Orchards | Winner | ||
| Gene Luen Yang | Level Up | Honor | |||
| 2012–2013 | Adult Fiction | Don Lee | The Collective | Winner | [12] |
| Krys Lee | Drifting House | Honor | |||
| Adult Nonfiction | Rick Baldoz | Third Asiatic Invasion: Empire and Migration in Filipino America, 1898-1946 | Winner | ||
| Martin B. Gold | Forbidden Citizens | Honor | |||
| Children's Literature | Hildi Kang | Chengli and the Silk Road Caravan | Winner | ||
| R. Kikuo Johnson | Shark King | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Joan Schoettler, illustrated by Jessica Lanan | Good Fortune in a Wrapping Cloth | Winner | ||
| Anne O'Brien Sibley | A Path of Stars | Honor | |||
| Young Adult Literature | Keshni Kashyap | Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary | Winner | ||
| Ryan Inzana | Ichiro | Honor | |||
| 2013–2014 | Adult Fiction | Ruth Ozeki | A Tale for the Time Being | Winner | [13] |
| Jennifer Cody Epstein | The Gods of Heavenly Punishment | Honor | |||
| Adult Nonfiction | Cindy I-Fen Cheng | Citizens of Asian America: Democracy and Race during the Cold War | Winner | ||
| Cecilia M. Tsu | Garden of the World: Asian Immigrants and the Making of Agriculture in California's Santa Clara Valley | Honor | |||
| Children's Literature | Cynthia Kadohata, illustrated by Julia Kuo | The Thing About Luck | Winner | ||
| Josanne La Valley | The Vine Basket | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Ji-li Jiang | Red Kite, Blue Kite | Winner | ||
| Marissa Moss, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu | Barbed Wire Baseball | Honor | |||
| Young Adult Literature | Leza Lowitz and Shogo Oketani | Jet Black and the Ninja Wind | Winner | ||
| Suzanne Kamata | Gadget Girl: The Art of Being Invisible | Honor | |||
| 2014–2015 | Adult Fiction | Celeste Ng | Everything I Never Told You | Winner | [14] |
| Mira Jacob | The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing | Honor | |||
| Adult Nonfiction | Robert Ji-Song Ku | Dubious Gastronomy: The Cultural Politics of Eating Asian in the USA | Winner | ||
| Alex Tizon | Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self written | Honor | |||
| Children's Literature | Matt Faulkner | Gaijin: American Prisoner of War | Winner | ||
| Kristie Hammond | Ting Ting | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Chieri Uegaki and Qin Leng | Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin | Winner | ||
| Rich Lo | Father’s Chinese Opera | Honor | |||
| Young Adult Literature | May-lee Chai | Tiger Girl | Winner | ||
| Gene Luen Yang, illustrated by Sonny Liew | Shadow Hero | Honor | |||
| 2015–2016 | Adult Fiction | Viet Thanh Nguyen | The Sympathizer | Winner | [15] |
| Sandip Roy | Don’t Let Him Know | Honor | |||
| Adult Nonfiction | Erika Lee | The Making of Asian America: a History | Winner | ||
| Haiming Liu | From Canton Restaurant to Panda Express: A History of Chinese Food in the United States | Honor | |||
| Madeline Y. Hsu | The Good Immigrant: How the Yellow Peril Became the Model Minority | Honor | |||
| Children's Literature | Marilyn Hilton | Full Cicada Moon | Winner | ||
| Erin Entrada Kelly | Blackbird Fly | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Jane Bahk | Juna's Jar | Winner | ||
| Margarita Engle, illustrated by Rafael Lopez | Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music | Honor | |||
| Young Adult Literature | Jenny Han | P.S. I Still Love You | Winner | ||
| Valynne E. Maetani | Ink and Ashes | Honor | |||
| 2016–2017 | Adult Fiction | Vanessa Hua | Deceit and Other Possibilities | Winner | [16] |
| Peter Ho Davies | The Fortunes | Honor | |||
| Adult Nonfiction | Barbara Kawakami | Picture Bride: Stories | Winner | ||
| Mas Masumoto and Nikiko Masumoto | Changing Season: A Father, A Daughter, A Family Farm | Honor | |||
| Children's Literature | Erin Entrada Kelly | The Land of Forgotten Girls | Winner | ||
| Margaret Dilloway | Momotaro Xander and the Lost Island of Monsters | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Hyewon Yum | Puddle | Winner | ||
| Young Adult Literature | Stacey Lee | Outrun the Moon | Winner | ||
| Marina Budhos | Watched | Honor | |||
| 2017–2018 | Adult Fiction | Lisa Ko | The Leavers | Winner | [17] |
| Viet Thanh Nguyen | The Refugees | Honor | |||
| Adult Nonfiction | Eleanor Ty | Asianfail: Narratives of Disenchantment and the Model Minority | Winner | ||
| Karen M. Inouye | The Long Afterlife of Nikkei Wartime Incarceration | Honor | |||
| Children's Literature | Uma Krishnaswami | Step Up to the Plate, Maria Singh | Winner | ||
| Susan Tan, illustrated by Dana Wulfekotte | Cilla Lee-Jenkins: Future Author Extraordinaire | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Bao Phi, illustrated by Thi Bui | A Different Pond | Winner | ||
| Andrea Wang, illustrated by Alina Chau | The Nian Monster | Honor | |||
| Young Adult Literature | Misa Sugiura | It’s Not Like It’s A Secret | Winner | ||
| S.K. Ali | Saints & Misfits | Honor | |||
| 2018–2019 | Adult Fiction | Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint | The End of Peril, The End of Enmity, The End of Strife, A Haven | Winner | [18] |
| YZ Chin | Though I Get Home | Honor | |||
| Adult Nonfiction | Sharmila Sen | Not Quite Not White: Losing and Finding Race in America | Winner | ||
| Mary-Kim Arnold | Litany for the Long Moment | Honor | |||
| Children's Literature | Kelly Yang | Front Desk | Winner | ||
| Mae Respicio | The House that Lou Built | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Minh Lê, illustrated by Dan Santat | Drawn Together | Winner | ||
| Betty Quan, illustrated by Carmen Mok | Grandmother’s Visit | Honor | |||
| Young Adult Literature | Adib Khorram | Darius the Great is Not Okay | Winner | ||
| Emily X.R. Pan | The Astonishing Color of After | Honor | |||
| 2019–2020 | Adult Fiction | Devi Laskar | The Atlas of Reds and Blues | Winner | [19] |
| Ocean Vuong | On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous | Honor | |||
| Adult Non-Fiction | Gordon H. Chang | Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad | Winner | ||
| Ann Hui | Chop Suey Nation | Honor | |||
| Children's Literature | Jen Wang | Stargazing | Winner | ||
| Patti Kim | I'm Ok | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Teresa Robeson illustrated by Rebecca Huang | Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom | Winner | ||
| Aisha Saeed illustrated by Anoosha Syed | Bilal Cooks Daal | Honor | |||
| Young Adult Literature | George Takei, Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott | They Called Us Enemy | Winner | ||
| David Yoon | Frankly in Love | Honor | |||
| 2020–2021 | Adult Fiction | C Pam Zhang | How Much of These Hills is Gold: A Novel | Winner | [20] |
| Souvankham Thammavongsa | How To Pronounce Knife | Honor | |||
| Adult Nonfiction | Erika Lee | America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States | Winner | ||
| Arthur Dong | Hollywood Chinese: The Chinese in American Feature Films | Honor | |||
| Youth Literature | Andrew Fukuda | The Light Between Us | Winner | ||
| Kiku Hughes | Displacement | Honor | |||
| Children's Literature | Tae Keller | When You Trap a Tiger | Winner | ||
| Linda Sue Park | Prairie Lotus | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Julie Leung, illustrated by Chris Sasaki | Paper Son: The Inspiring Story of Tyrus Wong, Immigrant and Artist | Winner | ||
| Anna Kim | Danbi Leads the School Parade | Honor | |||
| 2021–2022 | Adult Fiction | Hiromi Goto, illustrated by Ann Xu | Shadow Life | Winner | [21] |
| Anthony Veasna So | Afterparties | Honor | |||
| Adult Nonfiction | Grace M. Cho | Tastes Like War: A Memoir | Winner | ||
| Judy Y. Kawamoto | Forced Out: A Nikkei Woman's Search for a Home in America | Honor | |||
| Youth Literature | Malinda Lo | Last Night at the Telegraph Club | Winner | ||
| Traci Chee | We are Not Free | Honor | |||
| Children's Literature | Hena Khan | Amina's Song | Winner | ||
| Ellen Oh | Finding Junie Kim | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Andrea Wang, illustrated by Jason Chin | Watercress | Winner | ||
| James Yang | A Boy Named Isamu: A Story of Isamu Noguchi | Honor | |||
| 2022–2023 | Adult Fiction | Dur E Aziz Amna | American Fever | Winner | [22] |
| Joseph Han | Nuclear Family | Honor | |||
| Adult Nonfiction | Jay Caspian Kang | The Loneliest Americans | Winner | ||
| Qian Julie Wang | Beautiful Country | Honor | |||
| Young Adult Literature | Harmony Becker | Himawari House | Winner | ||
| Joanna Ho | The Silence that Binds Us | Honor | |||
| Children's Literature | Lisa Yee | Maizy Chen’s Last Chance | Winner | ||
| John Cho and Sarah Suk | Troublemaker | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Kao Kalia Yang, illustrated by Rachel Wada | From the Tops of the Trees | Winner | ||
| Liza Ferneyhough | Nana, Nenek & Nina | Honor | |||
| 2023–2024 | Adult Fiction | Janika Oza | A History of Burning | Winner | [23] |
| Gina Chung | Sea Change | Honor | |||
| Adult Nonfiction | Alice Wong | Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life | Winner | ||
| Thenmozhi Soundrararajan | The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition | Honor | |||
| Young Adult Literature | Shannon C. F. Rogers | I’d Rather Burn Than Bloom | Winner | ||
| Deb JJ Lee | In Limbo | Honor | |||
| Children's Literature | Christina Li | Ruby Lost and Found | Winner | ||
| Betty C. Tang | Parachute Kids: A Graphic Novel | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Julie Leung, illustrated by Hanna Cha | The Truth About Dragons | Winner | ||
| Angela Pham Krans, illustrated by Thi Bui | Finding Papa | Honor | |||
| 2024-2025 | Adult Fiction | Ed Park | Same Bed Different Dreams | Winner | [24] |
| Gina Chung | Green Frog: Stories | Honor | |||
| Adult Nonfiction | Drew Afualo | Loud: Accept Nothing Less Than the Life You Deserve | Winner | ||
| Alfred Perado Flores | Tip of the Spear: Land, Labor, and US Settler Militarism in Guåhan, 1944–1962 | Honor | |||
| Eddie Ahn | Advocate: A Graphic Memoir of Family, Community, and the Fight for Environmental Justice | Honor | |||
| Young Adult Literature | Randy Ribay | Everything We Never Had | Winner | ||
| Gene Luen Yang, illustrated by LeUyen Pham | Lunar New Year Love Story | Honor | |||
| Makiia Lucier | Dragonfruit | Honor | |||
| Children's Literature | Kathy MacLeod | Continental Drifter | Winner | ||
| Zachary Sterling | Mabuhay! | Honor | |||
| Kristiana Kahakauwila | Clairboyance | Honor | |||
| Picture Book | Kaylin Melia George, illustrated by Mae Waite | Aloha Everything | Winner | ||
| Kao Kalia Yang, illustrated by Jiemei Lin | The Rock in My Throat | Honor |