As readers, it’s important to consume stories from all perspectives, including diverse and marginalized ones. Today, we want to bring you some of the up-and-coming and new releases by Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) authors. These suggestions span stunning reads from fiction and nonfiction, so we hope you look forward to these seven highly anticipated releases.
Pieces You’ll Never Get Back: A Memoir of Unlikely Survival by Samina Ali
Publish Date: March 4, 2025
Samina Ali’s harrowing memoir recounts when she almost died giving birth to her son at 29 after complications with eclampsia, leaving her with a severe brain injury after she fell into a coma. When she woke up, she could only remember her deepest memories. She did not know her husband or remember having a son, and the only language she retained was her native Urdu. She was told she’d never recover, but over the years, she rebuilt herself, piece by piece, alongside her newborn son. Paired with that narrative, Ali explores her current relationship with her faith and her Islamic upbringing.
Audition by Katie Kitamura
Publish Date: April 8, 2025
Audition is a story of two narratives. We follow a theatre actress who meets a man at a Manhattan restaurant. The man is attractive, yet troubling, and young enough to be her son. These two diverging narratives ask us how perspective alters our sense of self and who we are to each other. Who is the actress? A mother, wife, actor? The structure takes you by surprise with the signature prose that Kitamura wields so well.
A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang
Publish Date: April 15, 2025
Lui Lufeng is a Windwalker, a tree-like being, and the eldest daughter of Feng royalty. She is also the next bride to the human king, a negotiation of marriage to ensure Lufeng’s people, culture, and land remain intact. Jiang’s lyrical prose perfectly narrates an allegory for human consumption, greed, and the destruction of the natural world. This is a perfect immersive fantasy sci-fi novella you’ll quickly devour.
Accidentally on Purpose by Kristen Kish
Publish Date: April 22, 2025
Krish never expected to be a public figure. Her upcoming memoir unpacks her childhood as a Korean American adoptee growing up in the Midwest, playing softball, surrounded by girls busy dating boys, and even her brief stint as a model. She never expected to be on Top Chef Season 10 and win. With all the twists and turns, Krish learns that accidents happen. It’s how you respond and what you make of them that counts.
Flashlight by Susan Choi
Publish Date: June 3, 2025
After taking a walk with her father — who can’t swim — by the beach when she was ten, Louisa was found washed up by the tide without her father, who is presumed dead. Each chapter shifts through family members and turns back in time to their family catastrophe. Louisa’s parents have severed pasts. Her father is Korean but was raised in Japan, losing touch with his family, and her American mother is estranged from her family. What really happened that day at the beach, and how did their family mysteries lead to such a devastating outcome?
House of Monsterous Women by Daphne Fama
Publish Date: August 12, 2025
Set in the Philippines in 1986, at the beginning of the People and Power Revolution, Josephine is left to take care of her family home after her parents’ tragic death when her brother leaves for Manila. When her old childhood friend, Hiraya, extends an invitation to play a game at their house, she jumps at the chance to escape the loneliness of their crumbling family home. If she wins, Josephine will have her heart’s desire, but when she arrives at the estate by the sea, something eerie lurks within the walls, and nothing is as it seems. When the game takes a dark turn, she realizes this is no longer a game; it’s a matter of survival. Fama weaves a suspenseful, horror-filled gothic tale ripe with Filipino folklore.
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
Publish Date: August 26, 2025
Kaung returns with her next book, Katabasis, which follows Alice Law and Peter Murdoch, both of whom are PhD students and magicians who must venture into Hell to rescue the soul of their professor, Jacob Grimes, who died in a freak magic accident. If they can bring Grimes back, he can write the recommendation letters they need to become tenured track magicians.
We hope that some of these titles (if not all!) have caught your eye. While this list is not exhaustive, and there are so many amazing AAPI authors, we hope you keep these new and up-and-coming releases on your radar.
Want some great AAPI sci-fi recommendations? Click here!
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