{"id":49158,"date":"2022-03-21T11:12:52","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T15:12:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=49158"},"modified":"2022-03-17T21:32:57","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T01:32:57","slug":"booklist-backlist-diverse-debut-story-collections-in-booklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/booklist-backlist-diverse-debut-story-collections-in-booklist\/","title":{"rendered":"Booklist Backlist: Diverse Debut Story Collections [in Booklist]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Short-story collections can be uneven, but readers will be consistently impressed by these extraordinary, resonant, and exhilarating debuts by a dozen diverse writers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Afterparties<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0By Anthony Veasna So. 2021. Ecco.<\/p>\n

So\u2019s nine electrifying stories magnificently create an interconnected Cambodian American community. The most autobiographical is \u201cHuman Development,\u201d in which the narrator is also named Anthony\u00a0and a gay, Stanford-degreed teacher close to his sister. So\u2019s death in December 2020 at just 28 was heartbreakingly tragic, but this exuberant debut ensures bittersweet\u00a0posthumous fame.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Apsara Engine<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0By Bishakh Som. 2020. Feminist Press.<\/p>\n

In words and art, Som\u2019s richly hued, gorgeously lettered, exquisitely detailed graphic collection presents a brave new world of diverse women \u2013 talking, dancing, dreaming, and plotting \u2013 while living among friends, lovers, and chimerical creatures in familiar cities and faraway landscapes, balancing the expectantly mundane with the marvelously fantastical.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Are You Enjoying?<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0By Mira Sethi. 2021. Knopf.<\/p>\n

Sethi showcases her literary lineage as the daughter of internationally renowned journalists Najam Sethi and Jugnu Mohsin, and the younger sister of lauded author and musician Ali Sethi. Already an established actor and journalist, Sethi\u00a0presents\u00a0six loosely\u00a0interlinked stories set in her native Pakistan, each confronting various power dynamics. With nuance and precision, Sethi both exposes and enthralls.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Each of Us Killers<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0By Jenny Bhatt. 2020. 7.13 Books.<\/p>\n

Peripatetically spread across continents, Bhatt\u2019s characters are often caught between expectations, desires, and boundaries. Challenging assumptions, disavowing control, manipulating barriers whenever possible, even at grave personal cost, Bhatt\u2019s compelling cast across 15 stories surprises, inspires, frightens, beguiles, and never disappoints.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Gordo<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0By Jaime Cortez. 2021. Grove\/Black Cat.<\/p>\n

Visual artist and performer Cortez gets literal in an impressive collection featuring the titular Gordo, a preteen middle child of Mexican American farmworkers on California\u2019s 1970s Central Coast. Each of the interlinked 11 stories are poignant coming-of-age glimpses of growing up \u201cdifferent,\u201d as in poor, Mexican American, perhaps gay. \u201cTell your story or it\u2019ll drown you,\u201d one character tells another, affirming once again the lifesaving power\u00a0<\/strong>of storytelling.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Hao<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0By Ye Chun. 2021. Catapult.<\/p>\n

Bilingual Chinese American writer, poet, and translator Ye displays her enviable linguistic prowess in a prodigious debut featuring women on both sides of the globe, many defined and confined by\u00a0<\/strong>and reliant on motherhood. Each of Ye\u2019s dozen stories astounds.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"How to Pronounce Knife<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0By Souvankham Thammavongsa. 2020. Little, Brown.<\/p>\n

In under 200 pages, Canadian poet Thammavongsa unveils 14 spectacular stories in her fiction debut. Born to Laotian parents in a Thai refugee camp and raised and educated in\u00a0Toronto, Thammavongsa parses her own culturally amalgamated heritage. Aficionados of pristine short fiction will want to read this collection.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Land of Big Numbers<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0By Te-Ping Chen. 2021. Mariner.<\/p>\n

Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0reporter Chen\u00a0<\/strong>emerges as a fiction powerhouse, each of her 10 stories an immersive literary event. Traversing continents and cultures, moving effortlessly between China and the U.S., Chen deftly presents everyday lives that entertain, educate, and\u00a0resonate.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"The Prince of Mournful Thoughts and Other Stories<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0By Caroline Kim. 2020. Univ. of Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

The disconnect between generations, cultures, and histories looms in Kim\u2019s stupendous Drue Heinz Literature Prize winner. Her dozen stories vary in location (Korea, California, France), time periods (18th century to the future), and multiple generations to introduce a memorable cast of those who are disappointed and determined, contemplative and challenged, lost and \u2013 for the luckiest \u2013 found.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"The Secret Lives of Church Ladies<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0By Deesha Philyaw. 2020. West Virginia Univ.<\/p>\n

Philyaw\u2019s\u00a0first book, a National Book Award finalist, offers nine superb stories of mothers and daughters, friends and lovers, careless cheaters and lonely singles. Among Philyaw\u2019s diverse women, some are abandoned, some abused, some untethered, some in control, a few, finally, beloved.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Skinship<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0By Yoon Choi. 2021. Knopf.<\/p>\n

The characters in Choi\u2019s stories are caught in between cultures, families, generations, even life and death. Especially stupendous are her Korean immigrant women-in-flux. Rare is the impeccable first collection, even if the writer\u2019s already been anointed by the legendary Roxane Gay, who chose \u201cThe Art of Losing\u201d for\u00a0Best American Short Stories 2018<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"We Two Alone<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0By Jack Wang. 2021. HarperVia.<\/p>\n

Wang\u2019s magnificent seven-story collection traverses North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, pausing at pivotal moments over a century of history, each presented through a peripatetic Chinese lens. While Wang\u2019s protagonists are ethnically Chinese, their lives \u2013 either by birth or by circumstance \u2013 happen beyond national borders, as they adapt (or not), plant (or not), merely survive and sometimes thrive around the world. Wang creates exquisite gems of universal empathy.<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: “Feature: Booklist Backlist: Diverse Debut Story Collections,” Booklist<\/em>, March 15, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Short-story collections can be uneven, but readers will be consistently impressed by these extraordinary, resonant, and exhilarating debuts by a dozen diverse writers.   Afterparties.\u00a0By Anthony Veasna So. 2021. Ecco. So\u2019s nine electrifying stories magnificently create an interconnected Cambodian American community. The most autobiographical is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,142,325,274,9,21,6,53,38,4420,199,7243,9599,1021,6535,7,18,137],"tags":[9814,89,9815,9036,9567,9037,6608,6668,8808,9344,58,9555,9324,10,11,9907,9888,24,8920,51,25,9775,9908,9325,9464,13,9568,39,9343,9556,9819,8921,9463,9774,9889,9820],"class_list":["post-49158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-black-african-american","category-cambodian-american","category-canadian","category-canadian-asian-pacific-american","category-chinese-american","category-fiction","category-indian-american","category-korean-american","category-laotian-american","category-latinaox","category-lists","category-mexican-american","category-pakistani-american","category-repost","category-short-stories","category-south-asian-american","category-southeast-asian-american","tag-afterparties","tag-anthology-collection","tag-anthony-veasna-so","tag-apsara-engine","tag-are-you-enjoying","tag-bishakh-som","tag-bookdragon","tag-booklist","tag-booklist-backlist","tag-caroline-kim","tag-coming-of-age","tag-deesha-philyaw","tag-each-of-us-killers","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-gordo","tag-hao","tag-historical","tag-how-to-pronounce-knife","tag-identity","tag-immigration","tag-jack-wang","tag-jaime-cortez","tag-jenny-bhatt","tag-land-of-big-numbers","tag-love","tag-mira-sethi","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-prince-of-mournful-thoughts-and-other-stories","tag-secret-lives-of-church-ladies","tag-skinship","tag-souvankham-thammavongsa","tag-te-ping-chen","tag-we-two-alone","tag-ye-chun","tag-yoon-choi"],"yoast_head":"\nBooklist Backlist: Diverse Debut Story Collections [in Booklist] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/booklist-backlist-diverse-debut-story-collections-in-booklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Booklist Backlist: Diverse Debut Story Collections [in Booklist] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Short-story collections can be uneven, but readers will be consistently impressed by these extraordinary, resonant, and exhilarating debuts by a dozen diverse writers.   Afterparties.\u00a0By Anthony Veasna So. 2021. 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