Monday, November 09, 2009

12th Annual Asian American Literary Awards Announced

The Asian American Writer's Workshop announced its winners this year for the 12th Annual Asian American Literary Awards. No surprises in the decisions, really, but some very good work to choose from. For the categories I'm most interested in:

The Asian American Literary Award in Poetry
The winner of the Twelfth Annual Asian American Literary Award in Poetry is Sesshu Foster for his collection World Ball Notebook. The two finalists are Monica Ferrell for Beasts for the Chase and Jeffrey Yang for An Aquarium. I haven't had a chance to read the other two, but I deeply enjoyed Jeffrey Yang's work.

The Asian American Literary Award in Nonfiction
The winner of the Twelfth Annual Asian American Literary Award in Nonfiction is Leslie T. Chang for her book Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China. The two finalists are Kao Kalia Yang for The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir and Kavitha Rajagopalan for Muslims of The Metropolis: The Stories of Three Immigrant Families in the West. Big congratulations, of course to Kao Kalia Yang, who continues to blaze trails for Hmong writers!

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