La Porte County Public Library System

Drowning Dragon Slips by Burning Plains counters the narrative held in the West about women and the land of the quaintly "lush" and "charming" Mekong Delta. A rice field in the middle of the communist and American-backed government, the delta was an essential resource that fed both sides of the war in Vietnam. The Mekong Delta went through countless massacres on an immense scale. Yet, history wiped the injuries away as if the river forgot. In her...

Homerow confronts chaos, questions the measure of time, and searches for other dimensions. Hunted by the unknown through moon phase and dream portal - who sent me this letter? Do they really think a lion can be tamed?

How to Write a Suicide Note examines the life of a Chinese/Black woman who grew up passing for white, who grew up poor, who loves women but has always married white men. Writing has saved her life. It has allowed her to name the historical trauma-the racist, sexist, classist experiences that have kept her from being fully alive, that have screamed at her loudly and consistently that she was no good, and would never be any good-and that no one could...

Among the most trenchant and provocative writers of globalization, Karen Tei Yamashita is one of the most significant, ambitious, and widely taught Asian American writers today. In four genre-bending novels, a short story collection/travel essay collage, a family memoir, and more than a dozen performance/theater works, Yamashita weaves together postmodernism, magical realism, history, social protest, and a wicked sense of humor. Her fictions challenge...

Big Meal on the Last Day: The pork belly sky sat Rendering fat layers of light That popped, dripped, Burned lightly by surprise. The grease of the evening seemed infinite Like we could watch the sun dying forever.

This poetry book from the heart is a powerful picture of one woman's experience coming of age in the past decade. Experience the beauty of words to offer perspective, hope, and transformation. A new collection of poems hits the bookshelves with Scattered, a young woman's testament to the beauty and vibrancy of a complicated world. With themes like romance, heartbreak, self-discovery, feminism, and identity, this powerful volume is the perfect exercise...

Vivek Shraya's debut collection of poetry is a bold and timely interrogation of skin, its origins, functions, and limitations. Poems that range in style from starkly concrete to limber break down the barriers that prevent understanding of what it means to be racialized. Shraya paints the face of everyday racism with words, rendering it visible, tangible and undeniable. Vivek Shraya is a writer, musician, and filmmaker whose previous books include...

Barbie Chang, Victoria Chang explores racial prejudice, sexual privilege, and the disillusionment of love through a reimagining of Barbie-perfect in the cultural imagination yet repeatedly falling short as she pursues the American dream. This energetic string of linked poems is full of wordplay, humor, and biting social commentary involving the quote-unquote speaker, Barbie Chang, a disillusioned Asian-American suburbanite. By turns woeful and passionate,...

This powerful poetry collection seeks to map the emotional and spiritual territory of diaspora, violence, abuse, and exile. Kai Cheng incorporates autobiographical details from her own childhood and adult life with the rhythms of the oral storytelling tradition and fairytale motifs, poignantly depicting the plight of trans women of color.

The joyful story of a young girl who dances to her own drumbeat, and in doing so teaches others about the richness of diversity.