CHICAGO – The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), an affiliate of the American Library Association, has selected the winners of the 2014 Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature (APAAL). The awards promote Asian/Pacific American culture and heritage and are awarded to titles published from October 2013 to September 2014 based on their literary and artistic merit.
The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) was founded in 1980 by librarians of diverse Asian/Pacific ancestries committed to working together toward a common goal: to create an organization that would address the needs of Asian/Pacific American librarians and those who serve Asian/Pacific American communities.
There are five categories for the Awards, each with a Winner and an Honor book.
Here are the winners of the 2014 awards:
Adult Fiction
• Winner: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (Penguin Books)
• Honor: The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob (Random House)
Adult Non-Fiction
• Winner: Dubious Gastronomy: The Cultural Politics of Eating Asian in the USA by Robert Ji-Song Ku (University of Hawaii Press)
• Honor: Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self written by Alex Tizon (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Young Adult
• Winner: Tiger Girl by May-Lee Chai (GemmaMedia)
• Honor: Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang (First Second), illustration by Sonny Liew.
Children’s
• Winner: Gaijin: American Prisoner of War by Matt Faulkner (Disney/Hyperion Books)
• Honor: Ting Ting by Kristie Hammond (Sono Nis Press, Canada)
Picture Book
• Winner: Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin by Chieri Uegaki and Qin Leng (Kids Can Press)
• Honor: Father’s Chinese Opera by Rich Lo (Sky Pony Press)
The winners will each receive an award plaque and an award seal on their book at the APALA Award Ceremony on Saturday, June 27, 2015 during the ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco, CA.
Publishers interested in submitting books for the 2016 awards should contact Dora Ho, Jury Co-Chair, at dorah2005@gmail.com