Author Spotlight
Ocean Vuong
A Vietnamese-American poet and novelist whose writing is lyrical, tender, and devastating. Vuong’s work, especially On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, explores themes of queer identity, intergenerational trauma, and the immigrant experience through prose that reads like poetry. His voice is intimate and aching, rooted in both beauty and survival.
Kali Fajardo-Anstine
A Chicana author from Denver whose stories center on Latinas in the American West. In her collection Sabrina & Corina, Fajardo-Anstine blends familial history, grief, and cultural memory with a quiet power. Her writing is earthy, poetic, and deeply grounded in place and community—bringing to light voices often left on the margins
Elaine Castillo
A Filipino-American writer whose debut novel America Is Not the Heart is a sweeping, character-driven exploration of diaspora, revolution, and resilience. Castillo writes with warmth and complexity, capturing the political and personal lives of immigrants with striking realism, humor, and heart. Her prose is alive with voices that feel both real and radical.
Leila Mottley
Oakland native Leila Mottley exploded onto the literary scene with Nightcrawling, a novel that blends poetry, protest, and raw urban survival. Her work embodies the pulse of youth and the weight of inherited injustice. She was longlisted for the Booker Prize at just 20 years old. Mottley writes with the kind of unfiltered emotional gravity that turns a reader into a witness. She's a young voice already reshaping contemporary literature.
Kazuo Ishiguro
Kazuo Ishiguro is a British author and Nobel Prize winner known for his haunting, elegant prose and his exploration of memory, loss, and human fragility. Whether writing dystopian fiction like Never Let Me Go or historical introspection like The Remains of the Day, Ishiguro’s work lingers with emotional restraint—and cuts deep without ever raising its voice.
Aki Shimazaki
Aki Shimazaki is a Japanese-Canadian author known for her minimalist style and emotionally rich storytelling. Writing primarily in French, her novels often unfold in interlinked series, offering subtle portraits of Japanese life, generational trauma, and the quiet complexities of love, duty, and identity.