International Women’s Day is an important day to celebrate the achievements of women around the world. In honor of this day, we want to highlight the work of uplifting Asian women authors who have made significant contributions to literature. These uplifting Asian women have overcome various obstacles to create works that are both impactful and inspiring. Here are just a few of the many incredible Asian women authors worth reading. We’ve also highlighted their words as quotes that you can reflect on throughout the year!
See also: 10 books by Asian Canadian and Asian American women you need to add to your reading list
The Story of Us by Catherine Hernandez
In this heavy-hitting release, Mary Grace Concepcion is an overseas Filipino worker, who left her husband to be a caregiver in Hong Kong. She travels to Canada, with the hope she can sponsor her husband. When she arrives in Toronto, she navigates employers and her new life as a Personal Support Worker. She begins caring for Liz, an elderly patient with Alzheimer’s disease. Then, Liz challenges Mary Grace’s conservative beliefs with Liz’s legendary past. Mary Grace becomes her biggest ally and finds a found family in Canada. The Story of Us honours the Trans community, and also the LGBTQ2IA+ and Filipinx communities.
“I have lived for years as a seed in the ovaries of my mother while my mother gestated in the body of my Lola Daning. I was a dream of a dream back then, a nesting doll of possibility. Before I had my own organs, I listened to the simultaneous beating of my grandmother’s heart (bass heavy, slow, sure) and my mother’s heart (quick, excited) in an odd mismatch of a song.”
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
Bird Gardner lives with his father, who is quiet, loving, and broken. They reside in a society governed by laws aimed at preserving “American culture” amidst economic instability and violence. The authorities the power to relocate children…
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