The Asian American Literary Awards are a set of annual awards that have been presented by The

Asian American Writers' Workshop The Asian American Writers' Workshop (often abbreviated AAWW) is a nonprofit literary arts organization founded in 1991 to support Asian American writers, literature and community. Cofounders Curtis Chin, Christina Chiu, Marie Myung-Ok Lee, and B ...

since 1998. The awards include a set of honors for excellence in fiction, poetry and nonfiction, chosen by a panel of literary and academic judges; a Members' Choice Award, voted on by the Workshop's members from the list of that year's entries; and a Lifetime Achievement Award. To be eligible, a book must be written by someone of Asian descent living in the United States and published first in English; entries are actively solicited by the Workshop.AAWW Awards list
, accessed 7 August 2010.

List of winners

''* = Member's Choice Award'' ; 2012 *

Roya Hakakian , birth_date = ca. 1966 , birth_place = Tehran, Iran , death_date = , death_place = , occupation = , language = Persian, English , nationality = , citizenship = American , education = , alma_mater = Brooklyn College, , period = , ...

– "Assassins of the Turquoise Palace" *

Rahul Mehta Rahul Mehta is an American author. He was born and raised in West Virginia, and his work focuses on the experience of being queer and South Asian. Mehta is the winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Debut Gay Fiction and the Asian American Litera ...

– "Quarantine" * Janine Oshiro – "Pier" * Thaddeus Rutkowski * – "Haywire" ;2011 *

Yiyun Li Yiyun Li (born November 4, 1972) is a Chinese-born writer and professor in the United States. Her short stories and novels have won several awards, including the PEN/Hemingway Award and Guardian First Book Award for ''A Thousand Years of Good Pra ...

– ''Gold Boy, Emerald Girl'' *

Kimiko Hahn Kimiko Hahn (born July 5, 1955) is an American poet and distinguished professor in the MFA program of Queens College, CUNY. Her works frequently deal with the reinvention of poetic forms and the intersecting of conflicting identities. Biography ...

– ''Toxic Flora'' *

Amitava Kumar Amitava Kumar (born 17 March 1963) is an Indian writer and journalist who is Professor of English on the Helen D. Lockwood Chair at Vassar College. Early life Kumar was born in the city of Arrah in the Indian state of Bihar on 17 March 1963. He ...

– ''A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm, A Bomb'' *

Ed Lin Ed Lin is a Taiwanese-American writer, actor and novelist. He is the first author to win three Asian American Literary Awards. His first novel, ''Waylaid'' (2002) won a Members' Choice Award at the Asian American Literary Awards and also a Boo ...

* – ''Snakes Can't Run: A Mystery'' *

Karen Tei Yamashita Karen Tei Yamashita ( ja, 山下てい ; born January 8, 1951) is a Japanese-American writer. Early life Yamashita was born on January 8, 1951, in Oakland, California. Career Yamashita is Professor of Literature at the University of Calif ...

* – ''I Hotel'' ;2010 *

Paul Yoon Paul Yoon (born 1980) is an American fiction writer. In 2010 The National Book Foundation named him a 5 Under 35 honoree. Early life and education Yoon's grandfather was a North Korean refugee who resettled in South Korea, where he later founded ...

– ''Once the Shore'' *

Minal Hajratwala Minal Hajratwala (born 1971) is a writer, performer, poet, and queer activist of Indian descent. She was born in 1971 in San Francisco, California, US, and was raised in New Zealand and suburban Michigan. She is a graduate of Stanford University. ...

– ''Leaving India: My Family's Journey From Five Villages to Five Continents'' *

Ronaldo V. Wilson Ronaldo is a Portuguese given name equivalent to the English Ronald. It became a common name in all Portuguese-speaking countries, being also prevalent in Italy and Spanish-speaking countries. People Notable people known as Ronaldo include: As ...

– ''Poems of the Black Object'' * Jason Koo* – ''Man on Extremely Small Island'' ;2009 *

Jhumpa Lahiri Nilanjana Sudeshna "Jhumpa" LahiriMinzesheimer, Bob ''USA Today'', August 19, 2003. Retrieved on 2008-04-13. (born July 11, 1967) is an American author known for her short stories, novels and essays in English, and, more recently, in Italia ...

– ''

Unaccustomed Earth ''Unaccustomed Earth'' is a collection of short stories from American author Jhumpa Lahiri. It is her second collection of stories, following '' Interpreter of Maladies'' (which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction). As with much of Lahiri's work, ...

'' *

Sesshu Foster Sesshu Foster (born April 5, 1957) is an American poet and novelist. Sesshu Foster is a Japanese-American poet of white and Nisei descent. He grew up on Los Angeles’ East Side and came of age in the primarily Chicano neighborhood of City Ter ...

– ''World Ball Notebook'' * Leslie T. Chang – ''Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China'' ;2008 *

Mohsin Hamid Mohsin Hamid ( ur, محسن حامد; born 23 July 1971) is a British Pakistani novelist, writer and brand consultant. His novels are '' Moth Smoke'' (2000), '' The Reluctant Fundamentalist'' (2007), ''How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia'' (2 ...

– ''The Reluctant Fundamentalist'' *

Vijay Prashad Vijay Prashad is an Indian Marxist historian and commentator. He is an executive-director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, the Chief Editor of LeftWord Books, and a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financi ...

– ''The Darker Nations'' *

Sun Yung Shin Sun Yung Shin (born 1974) is a Korean American poet, writer, consultant, and educator living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is the editor of "A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota" (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2016), author of " ...

– ''Skirt Full of Black'' *

* – ''This Is a Bust'' ;2007 *

Linh Dinh Linh Dinh (Vietnamese: , born 1963, Saigon, Vietnam) is a Vietnamese-American poet, fiction writer, translator, and photographer. He was a 1993 Pew Fellow. He writes a column for '' The Unz Review''. Biography Dinh came to the US in 1975, live ...

– ''Borderless Bodies'' *

Amitav Ghosh Amitav Ghosh (born 11 July 1956)Ghosh, Amitav
, ''Encyclopædia Britannica''

– '' Incendiary Circumstances: A Chronicle of the Turmoil of Our Times'' *

Samrat Upadhyay Samrat Upadhyay ( ne, सम्राट उपाध्याय)(born 1964) is a Nepalese born American writer who writes in English. Upadhyay is a professor of creative writing and has previously served as the Director of the Creative Writing ...

– ''The Royal Ghosts'' *

Gene Luen Yang Gene Luen Yang (Chinese Traditional: 楊謹倫, Simplified: 杨谨伦, Pinyin: ''Yáng Jǐnlún''; born August 9, 1973) is an American cartoonist. He is a frequent lecturer on the subjects of graphic novels and comics, at comic book conventions a ...

* – ''

American Born Chinese American-born Chinese are the subset of Chinese Americans who were born in the US. The term may also refer to: * ''ABC'' (Jin album), a Cantonese language album by Chinese American rapper Jin, the name of which is the colloquially used acronym of ...

'' ;2006 * Jeff Chang – '' Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation'' * Rattawut Lapcharoensap – ''Sightseeing'' * Shanxing Wang – ''Mad Science in Imperial City'' * Ed Bok Lee* – ''Real Karaoke People'' ;2005 * Brian Leung ''World Famous Love Acts'' *

Suketu Mehta Suketu Mehta is the New York-based author of ''Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found'', which won the Kiriyama Prize and the Hutch Crossword Award, and was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize, the Lettre Ulysses Prize, the BBC4 Samuel Johnson Pri ...

– ''Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found'' * Srikanth Reddy – ''Facts for Visitors'' * Ishle Yi Park* – ''The Temperature of this Water'' ;2004 *

Mei-mei Berssenbrugge Mei-mei Berssenbrugge (; born October 5, 1947, in Beijing, China) is a contemporary poet. Winner of two American Book Awards, her work is often associated with the Language poets, Language School, the poetry of the New York School (art), New York ...

– ''Nest'' * Monique Truong – '' The Book of Salt'' * Vijay Vaitheeswaran – ''Power to the People'' *

Patrick Rosal Patrick Rosal is a Filipino American poet and essayist. Writing Rosal is the author of four books of poetry: ''Brooklyn Antediluvian'', ''Boneshepherds'', ''My American Kundiman'', and ''Uprock Headspin Scramble and Dive'', all from Persea Book ...

* – ''Uprock, Headspin, Scramble and Dive'' ;2003 * Walter Lew – ''Treadwinds: Poems and Intermedia Texts'' *

Meera Nair Mira Nair (born 15 October 1957) is an Indian-American filmmaker based in New York City. Her production company, Mirabai Films, specializes in films for international audiences on Indian society, whether in the economic, social or cultural spher ...

– ''Video: Stories'' *

Julie Otsuka Julie Otsuka is an American author. Biography Otsuka was born in 1962, in Palo Alto, California. Her father worked as an aerospace engineer and her mother worked as a lab technician before she gave birth to Otsuka. Both of her parents were of Ja ...

– '' When the Emperor was Divine'' *

* – ''Waylaid'' ;2002 *

Alexander Chee Alexander Chee (born August 21, 1967) is an American fiction writer, poet, journalist and reviewer. Born in Rhode Island, he spent his childhood in South Korea, Kauai, Chuuk Lagoon, Truk, Guam and Maine. He attended Wesleyan University and the I ...

– ''Edinburgh'' *

Luis H. Francia Luis H. Francia is a Filipino Americans, Filipino American poet, playwright, journalist, and nonfiction writer. His memoir, ''Eye of the Fish: A Personal Archipelago'', won both the 2002 PEN/Open Book, PEN Open Book and the 2002 Asian American L ...

– ''Eye of the Fish: A Personal Archipelago'' * Christina Chiu – ''Troublemaker and Other Saints'' * Don Lee* – ''Yellow'' ;2001 *

Ha Jin Jin Xuefei (; born February 21, 1956) is a Chinese-American poet and novelist using the pen name Ha Jin (). ''Ha'' comes from his favorite city, Harbin. His poetry is associated with the Misty Poetry movement. Early life Ha Jin was born in L ...

– '' The Bridegroom and Other Stories'' * Eugene Gloria – ''Drivers at the Short Time Motel: Poems'' *

Akhil Sharma Akhil Sharma (born July 22, 1971) is an Indian-American author and professor of creative writing. His first published novel '' An Obedient Father'' won the 2001 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. His second, ''Family Life'', won the 2015 Folio Priz ...

– ''An Obedient Father'' *

Nick Carbo Nick may refer to: * Nick (given name) * A Glossary of cricket terms#nick, cricket term for a slight deviation of the ball off the edge of the bat * British slang for being arrested * British slang for a police station * British slang for stealin ...

* – ''Secret Asian Man'' ;2000 * Eric Gamalinda – ''Zero Gravity'' *

Chang-rae Lee Chang-rae Lee (born July 29, 1965) is a Korean-American novelist and a professor of creative writing at Stanford University. He was previously Professor of Creative Writing at Princeton and director of Princeton's Program in Creative Writing. E ...

– '' A Gesture Life'' * Bino Realuyo* – ''Umbrella Country'' ;1999 * Susan Choi – ''The Foreign Student'' *

Arthur Sze Arthur Sze (; ; born December 1, 1950) is an American poet, translator, and professor. Since 1972, he has published ten collections of poetry. Sze's ninth collection ''Compass Rose'' (2014) was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Sz ...

– ''The Redshifting Web: Poems 1970–98'' ;1998 *

– ''Endocrinology'' *

Lois-Ann Yamanaka Lois-Ann Yamanaka (born September 7, 1961) is an American poet and novelist from Hawaii. Many of her literary works are written in Hawaiian Pidgin, and some of her writing has dealt with controversial ethnic issues. In particular, her works confro ...

– ''

Blu's Hanging ''Blu's Hanging'' is a 1997 coming-of-age novel by Lois-Ann Yamanaka. It follows the Ogata family after the death of their mother, as each family member struggles to come to terms with their grief. The story is told through Ivah, a smart-mouthed ...

Lifetime Achievement Award winners

*2009:

Sonny Mehta Ajai Singh "Sonny" Mehta (9 November 1942McFadden, Robert D. (31 December 2019) ''The New York Times''. – 30 December 2019) was an Indian editor and the editor-in-chief of Alfred A. Knopf and chairman of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ...

*2008:

David Henry Hwang David Henry Hwang (born August 11, 1957) is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City. He has won three Obie Awards for his plays '' FOB'', '' Golden Child'', and '' Yellow ...

*2006:

Maxine Hong Kingston Maxine Hong Kingston (; born Maxine Ting Ting Hong;Huntley, E. D. (2001). ''Maxine Hong Kingston: A Critical Companion'', p. 1. October 27, 1940) is an American novelist. She is a Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley, wher ...

References

{{reflist Asian-American literature American literary awards Awards established in 1998 1998 establishments in the United States Literary awards honoring minority groups Literary awards honoring lifetime achievement

List of winners

Lifetime Achievement Award winners

See also

References