For several years, Kaya along with our collaborators at AALR, Kundiman, the Smithsonian APAC and more have been discussing the best ways to build better connections between Asian American literary scholars, or scholars in general, and the writers and publishers who are focused on new Asian Pacific American and Asian Diasporic literatures. 

Kaya is currently working on re-launching our website, and will feature a dedicated resource space for academics and all educators who are not only interested in teaching Kaya books, but also want a space to find out more info about what new books are being published by Asian American authors, and how these books are being taught and discussed, along with which authors are available for classroom visits. We launched this idea several years ago as a newsletter called Throughlines, which featured shared syllabi, micro-reviews and more, and want to continue to build this idea and collaborate with Asian American writers, literary organizations, educators, and anyone who wants to be part of this conversation! Here is a PDF copy of the first issue of Throughlines we put together.

In the past two years, Kaya’s newest books Last of Her Name by Mimi Lok, and David Tung Can’t Have A Girlfriend Until He Gets Into An Ivy League College by Ed Lin–Kaya’s first YA book–have gotten great acclaim and lots of interest by educators. Let us know if you want a desk copy of this book, and we’ll send one out to you ASAP, and you can download PDF teaching guides for each book here. Last of Her Name Teaching Guide and David Tung Teaching Guide. We’d love to hear any feedback about the guides, too — so please email us at info AT kaya dot com with what you think and how we can provide more resources.

We are excited to create a space for scholars and writers to publish more reviews and takes on current books, so please sign up for our newsletter so we can get the word out to you about when we are accepting reviews and so you don’t miss out on this great resource!

Here’s a short list of the top 10 Kaya Books for Course Adoption

Rolling the Rs by R. Zamora Linmark: Did you know we released the 20th anniversary edition in 2016 with a new afterword by R. Zamora Linmark? Queer, Filipinx, experimental prose.

Migritude by Shailja Patel: Poetry/performance dealing with South Asian Diaspora, women’s voices, and global politics.

I Even Regret Night: Holi Songs of Demerara by Lalbihari Singh Sharma, translated Rajiv Mohabir: The only known literary work by an indentured servant in the Anglophone Caribbean.

Readymade Bodhisattva: The Kaya Anthology of South Korean Science Fiction: The first anthology of South Korean Science Fiction translated into English, with extensive notes on each author and story.

Where We Once Belonged by Sia Fiegel: The first novel written by a Samoan woman writer to be published in the United States.

Lament in the Night by Shoshon Nagahara, Translated by Andrew Leong: Nagahara’s stories were written in Japanese in the 1920s in Little Tokyo and published by Rafu Shimpo Press.

Accomplice to Memory by Q.M. Zhang: A powerful example of hybrid writing, utilizing non-fiction, fiction, and archival photos to tell a story of a Chinese immigrant father’s life and secrets.

Crevasse by Nic Wong: A Lambda-award winner in Gay poetry, Wong is a Hong Kong-based writer creating poetry in English, his second language.

Oriental Girls Desire Romance by Catherine Liu: Especially relevant in this current moment, Kaya classic Oriental Girls was recently chosen by Susie Bright who produced the audiobook in 2019, available now from Audible.

And China Has Hand by H.T. Tsiang, another of Kaya’s historical recovery series, edited by Floyd Cheung and capturing the writing of the fascinating iconoclast H.T. Tsiang, who was self-publishing in the 1930s.