This weekend is Salt Lake Comic Con (March 24-March 26). Tu Books authors M.K. Hutchins (DRIFT) and Valynne E. Maetani (INK AND ASHES) will be in attendance. Check out their schedules below:
M.K. Hutchins
Friday, March 25
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
History, Myth, and Archeology: Enriching Your Fantasy with Research from the Real World, Room 150G
Saturday, March 26
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Writing a Great Opening, Engaging Middle, And Perfect Ending, Room 255C
Valynne E. Maetani
Friday, March 25
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Book Signing, Shadow Mountain Booth 1341
Saturday, March 26
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Avatar the Last Airbender: Why This Modern Myth Means So Much to Us, Room 255F
1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
The Increasing Diversity of Star Wars, Room 151A
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Beyond Creation: Diversity in Writing, Room 150G
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Attack on Titan Obsession, Room 150G
The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) has revealed the winners of the 2015 Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature (APAAL).
According to the press release, the organization aims to “promote Asian/Pacific American culture and heritage” and recognize “titles published from October 2014 to September 2015 based on their literary and artistic merit” with these awards.
Below, we’ve collected free samples of many of the honored works for your reading pleasure.
Adult Fiction
Winner: Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Honor: Don’t Let Him Know by Sandip Roy
Adult Non-Fiction
Winner: The Making of Asian America by Erika Lee
Honor: Canton Restaurant to Panda Express by Haiming Liu
Honor: The Good Immigrant: How the Yellow Peril Became the Model Minority by Madilyn Y. Hsu
Young Adult
Winner: P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han
Honor: Ink and Ashes by Valynne E. Maetani
Children’s Books
Winner: Full Cicada Moon by Marilyn Hilton
Honor: Blackbird Fly by Erin Entrada Kelly
Picture Books
Winner: Juna’s Jar by Jane Bahk
Honor: Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music written by Margarita Engle and illustrated by Rafael Lopez
To celebrate the release of her debut novel, Ink and Ashes, earlier this month, author Valynne E. Maetani has been stopping by blogs to talk about her writing process, winning the first ever New Visions Award, and much more.
More about Ink and Ashes:
Claire Takata has never known much about her father, who passed away ten years ago. But on the anniversary of his death, she finds a letter from her deceased father to her stepfather. Before now, Claire never had a reason to believe they even knew each other.
Struggling to understand why her parents kept this surprising history hidden, Claire combs through anything that might give her information about her father . . . until she discovers that he was a member of the yakuza, a Japanese organized crime syndicate. The discovery opens a door that should have been left closed.
The race to outrun her father’s legacy reveals secrets of his past that cast ominous shadows, threatening Claire, her friends and family, her newfound love, and ultimately her life. Winner of Tu Books’ New Visions Award, Ink and Ashes is a fascinating debut novel packed with romance, intrigue, and heart-stopping action.
Here is a round up of the tour.
YA Books Central – Valynne E. Maetani shares 5 facts you should know about the Japanese mafia, known as the Yakuza, here.
Dear Teen Me – Read Valynne E. Maetani’s letter to her teen self here.
We Are Word Nerds – Valynne E. Maetani on the inspiration behind Ink and Ashes and her journey to publication here.
The Book Smugglers – Valynne E. Maetani on winning the New Visions Award here.
Teen Lit Rocks! shares why they enjoyed reading Ink and Ashes here.
To find out more about Valynne E. Maetani and Ink and Ashes, follow her on Twitter and Tumblr.
It’s finally June! We’re excited to announce the release of Ink and Ashes, the heart-stopping debut mystery by Valynne E. Maetani! Ink and Ashes is Tu Books’ first New Visions Award winner.
How far would you go to discover the truth?
Every family has its secrets, but Claire Takata’s family secrets can kill her…
In Ink and Ashes, personal vendettas and organized crime collide, sending Claire Tanaka on a race to outrun her father’s legacy. When a letter from her dead father reveals a family secret, Claire searches for information about her father’s past and discovers a dangerous family connection to the yakuza, the Japanese mafia.
Here’s what early readers have said about Ink and Ashes:
“This fantastic debut packs a highly suspenseful blend of action, intrigue, and teen romance.” —starred review, Kirkus Reviews
“Full of character, culture, and suspense, Ink and Ashes is a fascinating read with surprising new elements and a true heroine in Claire Takata.”
—Ally Condie, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Matched Trilogy
Happy book birthday to Ink and Ashes!
Be sure to buy your copy from our website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your local indie.
A new year means a new chance to get to all the things you didn’t get to last year. And by “things,” what we really mean is BOOKS. We also know that reading diversely doesn’t happen by accident; it takes a concerted effort to read a wide range of books.
So, we thought we’d help on both counts by offering up a list of the diverse authors we’re resolving to read in 2015. Some are new, and some have just been on our list for years. This is the year we plan to get to them – perhaps this will be your year, too?
1. Valynne E. Maetani, Ink and Ashes
Ink and Ashes is Tu Books’ first New Visions Award winner! This debut novel follows a Japanese American teen named Claire Takata. After finding a letter from her deceased father, she opens a door to the past that she should have left closed.
2. Joseph Bruchac, Killer of Enemies and Rose Eagle
The award-winning Killer of Enemies follows seventeen-year-old Apache monster hunter Lozen in a post-apocalyptic world.
The prequel, Rose Eagle, follows seventeen-year-old Rose of the Lakota tribe. After her aunt has a vision, Rose goes on a quest to the Black Hills and finds healing for her people.
3. Jacqueline Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming
Everyone’s talking about Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson’s memoir in verse about her childhood in the American South and in Brooklyn that recently won the 2014 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. But have you read it yet?
Her other novels include Miracle’s Boys and If You Come Softly.
4. Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Diaz’s Pulitzer-prize winning novel follows Oscar, an overweight, ghetto Dominican American nerd as he dreams of becoming the next J.R.R. Tolkein. This book is filled with Dominican history, magical realism, science-fiction and comic book references.
5. I.W. Gregorio, None of the Above
In this debut novel, Kristen, has a seemingly ideal life. She’s just been voted homecoming queen and is a champion hurdler with a full scholarship to college. Everything unravels when Kristen and her boyfriend decide to take it to the next level, and Kristen finds out she’s intersex. Somehow her secret is leaked to the whole school.
6. Edwidge Danticat, The Farming of Bones
This novel covers the Parsley Massacre of 1937 in Dominican Republic. Anabelle Desir and her lover Sebastien, decide they will get married at the end of the cane season and return to Haiti. When the Generalissimo Trujillo calls for an ethnic cleansing of the country’s Haitians, Anabelle and Sebastien struggle to survive.
7. Eric Gansworth, If I Ever Get Out of Here
Lewis “Shoe” Blake, a boy growing in the Tuscarora Indian Reservation in upsate New York in 1975, isn’t used to white people like George Haddonfield being nice to him. Lewis is also the target of the bully Eddie Reininger. Will George still be Lewis’s friend when he finds out the truth of how Lewis actually lives?
8. Alex Sanchez, Rainbow Boys
Alex Sanchez’s debut novel follows three boys, Jason Carrillo, Kyle Meeks, and Nelson Glassman, as they struggle with their sexualities and their friendships.
9. Natsuo Kirino, Out
Masako Katori lives with her dead-beat husband in the suburbs of Tokyo, where she makes boxed lunches in a factory. After violently strangling her husband, she uses the help of coworkers to cover her crime.
10. Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Summer of the Mariposas and Under the Mesquite
Summer of the Mariposas is a retelling of the Odyssey set in Mexico. When Odilia and her sisters find the body of a dead man in the Rio Grande, they decide to take his body back to Mexico.
In Under the Mesquite Lupita is an aspiring actress and poet, and the oldest of 8 siblings. When Lupita’s mother is diagnosed with cancer, Lupita struggles to keep her family together.
11. Naoko Uehashi, Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit
Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, which is set in a fantasy Asian-inspired world, inspired an anime of the same name. Balsa is a body guard who is hired by Prince Chagum’s mother to protect him from his father, the emperor, who wants him dead. A strange spirit possesses Prince Chagum that may be a threat to the kingdom.
12. Nnendi Okorafor, Akata Witch
American-born Sunny is an albino girl living in Nigeria. Although she doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere, Sunny discovers her latent magical abilities and joins 3 other students to learn how to control her powers. Sunny and her friends have to capture a career criminal who uses magic as well.
13. Zadie Smith, White Teeth
White Teeth focuses on the intertwining stories of two wartime buddies living in London with their families, and addresses topics such as assimilation and immigration in the U.K.’s cultural hub.
14. Aisha Saeed, Written in the Stars
Naila’s conservative immigrant parents say that they will let her wear her hair how she wants, choose what she will study and be when she grows up, but they will choose her husband. When Naila breaks this rule by falling in love with a boy named Saif, her parents take her to Pakistan to reconnect her with her roots. But Naila’s parents’ plans have changed, and they’ve arranged a marriage for her.
15. Alex Gino, George
Everyone thinks George is a boy, but George knows that she’s a girl. After her teacher announces that the class play is Charlotte’s Web, George hatches a plan with her best Kelly, so that everyone can know who she is once and for all.
Ink and Ashes by Valynne E. Maetani is Tu Books’ first New Visions Award winner. Seventeen-year-old Claire Takata discovers a secret about her deceased father that should have remained a secret.
The New Visions Award, modeled after LEE & LOW’s successful New Voices Award, is for unpublished writers of color who write science-fiction, fantasy, and mystery YA or middle grade novels.
Ink and Ashes is set to be released Spring 2015!
Claire Takata has never known much about her father, who passed away ten years ago. But on the anniversary of his death, she finds a letter from her deceased father to her stepfather. Before now, Claire never had a reason to believe they even knew each other.
Struggling to understand why her parents kept this surprising history hidden, Claire combs through anything that might give her information about her father . . . until she discovers that he was a member of the yakuza, a Japanese organized crime syndicate. The discovery opens a door that should have been left closed.
The race to outrun her father’s legacy reveals secrets of his past that cast ominous shadows, threatening Claire, her friends and family, her newfound love, and ultimately her life. Winner of Tu Books’ New Visions Award, Ink and Ashes is a fascinating debut novel packed with romance, intrigue, and heart-stopping action.
Thanks to the following blogs for participating in the Ink and Ashes cover reveal:
YA Interrrobang
RT Book Reviews
YA Highway
We can’t wait to hear what you think of the cover! Thanks to Sammy Yuen of Sammy Yuen Interaction Art and Design for the cover design.
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Definitely adding Ink and Ashes to my reading list! I am a big fan of reading and writing about Asian American historical fiction.
This is actually contemporary mystery, not historical fiction, Kathleen, but we think you’ll love it anyway!