The Asian American Writers' Workshop presents the highest literary honor for writers of Asian American descent. It is the only national organization actively soliciting entries, to ensure that a comprehensive list of the year's Asian American books are entered into competition. Past winners of the award include Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri, National Book Award winner Ha Jin, and Guggenheim Fellow Arthur Sze.
FICTION LONG LIST
Judged by Whiting Award winner Alexander Chee, University of Chicago Professor Richard So, and novelist and former Ploughshares editor Don Lee.
POETRY LONG LIST
Judged by Guggenheim Fellow John Yau, American Book Award winner Sesshu Foster, and Philippines’ National Book Award winner Eileen Tabios.
NON-FICTION LONG LIST
Judged by Vassar Professor Hua Hsu, Wall Street Journal editor S. Mitra Kalita, and novelist and former AAWW Board President Marie Lee.
FICTION LONG LIST
Judged by Whiting Award winner Alexander Chee, University of Chicago Professor Richard So, and novelist and former Ploughshares editor Don Lee.
- A Good Fall, Ha Jin (Pantheon)
- The Vagrants: A Novel, Yiyun Li (Random House)
- Picking Bones from Ash: A Novel, Marie Mitsuki Mockett (Graywolf)
- In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, Daniyal Mueenuddin (WW Norton & Company)
- Miles from Nowhere, Nami Mun (Riverhead)
- Water Ghosts, Shawna Yang Ryan (Penguin)
- Once the Shore: Stories, Paul Yoon (Sarabande)
POETRY LONG LIST
Judged by Guggenheim Fellow John Yau, American Book Award winner Sesshu Foster, and Philippines’ National Book Award winner Eileen Tabios.
- The Veiled Suite: The Collected Poems, Agha Shahid Ali (WW Norton & Company)
- Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities, Kazim Ali (Wesleyan University Press)
- The Heart's Traffic, Ching-in Chen (Red Hen Press)
- Bird Eating Bird: Poems (National Poetry Series), Kristin Naca (Harper Perennial)
- The Ginkgo Light, Arthur Sze (Copper Canyon)
- Poems of the Black Object, Ronaldo V. Wilson (FuturePoem Books)
NON-FICTION LONG LIST
Judged by Vassar Professor Hua Hsu, Wall Street Journal editor S. Mitra Kalita, and novelist and former AAWW Board President Marie Lee.
- Children of the Dust, Ali Eteraz (HarperOne)
- Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents, Minal Hajratwala (HoughtonMifflinHarcourt)
- Lucky Girl, Mei-Ling Hopgood (Algonquin Books)
- Fugitive Visions: An Adoptee's Return to Korea, Jane Jeong Trenka (Graywolf Press)
- In Hanuman's Hands: A Memoir, Cheeni Rao (HarperOne)
- Memories of Muhammad: Why the Prophet Matters, Omid Safi (HarperOne)
- I Love Yous Are for White People: A Memoir, Lac Su (HarperCollins-Perennial)
- American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods, Bonnie Tsui (Free Press)
