Girl Rising Archives

Author Interview: Manjushree Thapa [in Bookslut]

06 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Nepali, Nepali American, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian, South Asian American

Blame it on family, on the country-of-residence-at-the-moment, on the tumultuous politics of her motherland of Nepal, but certainly Manjushree Thapa has lived a life in flux, repeatedly adjusting to unpredictability. Born in Kathmandu, she moved as a toddler to Canada (young enough to acquire English...

The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna

01 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, African, Audio, Fiction

Months (maybe longer) have passed since I finished Aminatta Forna’s third and latest title, exquisitely narrated by British actor Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. I think I just didn't want to let it go by posting a review ...

Lulu in the Sky: A Daughter of Cambodia Finds Love, Healing, and Double Happiness by Loung Ung + Author Interview [in Bookslut]

04 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Cambodian, Cambodian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Young Adult Readers

When I recently met Loung Ung in person at one of her Washington, DC readings, we were the lone Asian women in the room. Yes, get ready with your "uh-oh." Within minutes, a random stranger asked if Ung and I were sisters. Surprisingly, I behaved...

Tropical Fish: Stories Out of Entebbe by Doreen Baingana

18 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Black/African American, Fiction, Short Stories

This interlinked story collection by Uganda-born, Stateside MFA-ed Doreen Baingana is a family affair that explores the lives of three sisters, their diverse paths, and their eventual return home. The two bookended stories introduce the family in the opening "Green Stones," only to end with...

Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengiste + Author Interview

09 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Author Interview/Profile, Black/African American, Fiction

Maaza Mengiste's voice, delivered by telephone many thousands of miles away, sounds impossibly young and happy. She’s easy to talk to, easy to laugh with. She’s in Rome for another few months, enjoying the spring sun, sipping another cup of tea in a nearby café,...

Seasons of Flight by Manjushree Thapa

13 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Nepali, Nepali American, South Asian, South Asian American

Nepal-born Manjushree Thapa, herself a peripatetic hybrid of East and West with an American education and Canadian ties, is one of a handful of Nepali authors successfully writing in English. This, her latest novel (and only her second in her almost two-decade writing history with seven titles...

Chanda’s Secrets by Allan Stratton

02 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in African, Canadian, Fiction, Young Adult Readers

If it hasn't happened already, soon enough Chanda's Secrets will be coming to a theater near you ...

Mud City by Deborah Ellis

09 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Afghan, Canadian, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers

The final installment of Canadian activist/author Deborah Ellis' award-winning Breadwinner Trilogy follows Shauzia, Parvana's best friend from The Breadwinner, in which both girls survived by cross-dressing as young boys, working to provide for their shuttered-in families in Taliban-controlled Kabul. While Parvana's desperate odyssey to reunite with her family...

Parvana’s Journey by Deborah Ellis

08 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Afghan, Canadian, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers

The second part of Canadian anti-war activist Deborah Ellis' lauded Breadwinner Trilogy continues with Parvana's odyssey to reunite with her surviving family. Parvana and her recently released father leave Kabul at the end of The Breadwinner, determined to find Parvana's mother, older sister, younger sister, and toddler...

The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis

06 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Afghan, Canadian, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers

When Parvana’s gentle father is suddenly beaten without cause and locked away for being an educated citizen, her family is left without a means to support themselves. Under Taliban rule, women are forbidden in Kabul to leave the house unless fully covered and accompanied by...

The Clay Marble by Minfong Ho

05 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Cambodian, Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Southeast Asian

Twelve-year-old Dara, her older brother, and their mother are the only ones left of their once-large family. Although the Vietnam War officially ended in 1975, neighboring Cambodia – decimated by Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime – is still plagued with uncontrolled violence. Dara’s diminished family flees...

Dear Zari: Hidden Stories from Women of Afghanistan by Zarghuna Kargar

17 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, British, Memoir, Nonfiction

"'I hope other people – particularly women – listen to these stories and become kinder to their own sex,'" a woman laments, her life made unbearable by her female in-laws who condemn her because she literally flushed away the evidence of her virginal blood. "'I don't understand...

Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengiste

14 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Black/African American, Fiction

Decades ago, I went to college with one of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie's grandsons. Beyond the seemingly ubiquitous images back then of Ethiopia's barren natural disasters and widespread starvation, that worldly, quiet, thoughtful young man was my first real encounter with Ethiopia ...

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung + Author Interview

10 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Cambodian, Cambodian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American

For someone who has experienced hell, Loung Ung is a bright, welcoming voice filled with inviting laughter. She’s warm: “I just had dinner with my writing group last night. They’re my PenGals. I just love them! I don’t know what I would do without them.” She’s practical:...

Eight Days: A Story of Haiti by Edwidge Danticat, illustrated by Alix Delinois

30 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Black/African American, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Haitian, Haitian American

This has been one tragic week: the deadly Oaxaca, Mexico mudslide, the two Rutgers freshmen whose abusively invasive actions led to the suicide of a third first-year student, the deaths of iconic actor Tony Curtis and director Arthur Penn ...

Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat [in San Francisco Chronicle]

10 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Black/African American, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Haitian, Haitian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

brother-im-dying1 Something magical happens when prize-winning novelist Edwidge Danticat strings words together. From the most trivial details to breathtaking moments of enormous gravity, Danticat uses words as charms that gently beckon readers into her world and make...

Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind by Loung Ung [in AsianWeek]

05 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese, Vietnamese American

Lucky Child One child escapes, the other is left behind: In this continuation of the bestseller, First They Killed My Father, Ung recounts her journey from her war-torn homeland to a new American life....

Parsis: The Zoroastrians of India | A Photographic Journey 1980-2004 by Sooni Taraporevala [in AsianWeek]

27 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Indian, Nonfiction, Repost, South Asian

Parsis From the screenwriter of such award-winning films as Mississippi Masala and Salaam Bombay! comes a stunning portrait of a rapidly shrinking community, the Parsis who number just 100,000 today. Followers of Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s...

The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat + Author Interview [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Black/African American, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Fiction, Haitian, Haitian American, Repost

dew-breaker Horror, Hope & Redemption: A Talk with Edwidge Danticat About Her Latest Novel, The Dew Breaker When I mention to a dear friend in England, who happens to be an excellent fiction writer herself, that I’m preparing...

Series Profile: First Person Fiction [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Author Interview/Profile, Black/African American, Cambodian American, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Fiction, Haitian, Haitian American, Korean American, Latina/o/x, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Southeast Asian, Young Adult Readers

first-person-fiction Behind the Mountains by Edwidge Danticat Flight to Freedom by Ana Veciana-Suarez Finding My Hat by John Son The Stone Goddess by Minfong Ho With the exception of the Native Americans—and some may still argue that they walked over the...

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