Category: Books

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Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth on the World of ‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes’

Sophia Soto

On behalf of The Nerds of Color, I attended the press conference for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes with stars Rachel Zegler, Tom Blyth, Hunter Schafer, and Josh Andrés Rivera! The film takes place 64 years before Katniss Everdeen volunteered as tribute, and decades before Coriolanus Snow became the President of Panem.

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Books, Streaming, Television

Prime Video Releases First Look at ‘Expats’

Laura Sirikul

Prime Video released their first-look images for Expats, the six-part limited series based on the internationally best-selling novel The Expatriates by Janice Y.K. Lee. Directed by Lulu Wang, Expats stars Nicole Kidman, Sarayu Blue, Ji-young Yoo, Brian Tee, and Jack Huston.

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Books, Comics

Popular Novel ‘The Bromance Book Club’ Comes in Comics Form on Manta

Laura Sirikul

Popular romance novel The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams becomes the latest IP to receive the webcomic treatment by Manta Studios. The Bromance Book Club digital comic will premiere on Manta on September 3, 2023. 

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Animation, Books, Interview1 Comment

F.C. Yee Talks Exploring a Deliberate Contrast in ‘The Legacy of Yangchen’

Lauren Lola

The Legacy of Yangchen is the latest book in the Chronicles of the Avatar series, and the last of the Yangchen duology. In the aftermath of the events of The Dawn of Yangchen, the airbending Avatar finds herself in the difficult position of having to de-escalate conflicts between heads of states of the Four Nations, in the midst of the threat of a powerful new weapon. To makes things even more difficult for her, she must turn to assistance from Kavik, whom she’s not on good terms, following an act of betrayal by the latter from their previous adventure together.

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Books, Comics, Movies, Television

For AANHPI Heritage Month, Here are 50 West Asians in Pop Culture You Should Know

Swara Salih

May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month, a cause for celebration of these many diverse communities. But far too often, many who champion this month have belied and ignored specific groups within this collective, often presenting a limited scope of who counts as “Asian” or “Asian American” in this collective consciousness.

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Books, Hard N.O.C. Life1 Comment

Hard NOC Life 307: ‘Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant’

Hard NOC Media

On another special episode of Hard NOC Life, Keith sits down with documentary filmmaker and co-founder of the Asian American Writer’s Workship, Curtis Chin, to discuss his new memoir, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant, which will be available in bookstores everywhere this October.

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Books, Interview

Diana López on Monsters, Myth, and Healing in Her New Book, ‘Felice and the Wailing Woman’

LaKase

Diana López is an educator at heart with a penchant for finding the magic in the seemingly mundane. Whether on the road through her beloved home state of Texas, or sitting by a campfire, or floating through the water, Diana has the ability to peek behind the veil to find a story. In her new book, Los Monstruous: Felice and The Wailing Woman, the author takes us behind the curtain of Corpus Christi to the town of Tres Leches, where the daughter of a monster sets herself on course to undo a nightmare that has become something akin to a myth. Below, she reveals how our stories can heal the wound of trauma and why our monsters are worth exploring with a fresh perspective.

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Books, Fantasy, Reviews

With Swords and Shakespeare, ‘That Self-Made Metal’ is a Welcome YA Fantasy Adventure

LaKase

Magic and superstition swirl around the world of William Shakespeare. While priests at the time decried belief in fairies, the practice of witchcraft, and women speaking on stage, the theater world managed to carve out space where anything was possible.

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Books, Podcasts

Southern Fried Asian: Suzanne Park

Southern Fried Asian

Southern Fried Asian returns to feature stand-up-comic-turned-young-adult-romance-author, Suzanne Park! She and Keith discuss growing up in the suburbs of Nashville, stumbling into stand-up comedy, writing her newest book, The Christmas Clash — about warring food court restaurants, her mother’s Korean American fried chicken, and more.

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Books, Fantasy, Interview

Author Ayana Gray Discusses Her New Novel, ‘Beasts of Ruin’ and More

Sophia Soto

Ayana Gray is a New York Times bestselling young adult fantasy author. Her debut novel, Beasts of Prey is being adapted for film by Netflix. The follow-up, Beasts of Ruin, was just released on July 26!

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Animation, Books, Interview

From Kyoshi to Yangchen, F.C. Yee on Chronicling Stories of the Avatars

Lauren Lola

In 2019, author F.C. Yee brought the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender into the young adult fiction space, when he authored The Rise of Kyoshi. The first of the Kyoshi duology, readers got to explore one of Avatar Aang’s more notable previous incarnations in how she came to be one of the more hardcore Avatars.

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Books, Movies

‘Mr. Malcolm’s List’ Trailer is Full of Romantic Charm and Delight

Laura Sirikul

Whenever I hear there is a new romance period piece centering classic or historical novels, I typically shrug at the idea of it being done over and over again by the same white actors. Although I do love Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy, as well as Tom McFadden’s version of him, there have been 18 adaptations of the Jane Austen classic — only two of which centers around people of color (Bride & Prejudice, Fire Island).

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Books, Movies, Television

More AAPI Supernatural Recommendations for Fans of Disney’s ‘So Weird’

Lauren Lola

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month everyone! Last year, to acknowledge both this annual commemoration of contributions from the AAPI community and the ever-present following of the ’90s Disney Channel original series, So Weird, I compiled together a list of supernatural recommendations, created by and about people of the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.

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Books, Interview

Ibi Zoboi on Writing a Biographical Constellation of Octavia Butler

Shannon Gibney

Award-winning author Ibi Zoboi has penned a “biographical constellation” of the late, great Black feminist sci-fi writer Octavia Butler. Called Star Child (Dutton, January 2022), the book contains poems, short essays, and actual fragments of Butler’s own writing and musings.

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Books, Podcasts

Southern Fried Asian: Jamie Ford

Southern Fried Asian

For this episode of Southern Fried Asian, Keith talks to his friend, the New York Times-bestselling author Jamie Ford, and learning about his southern roots in Arkansas. Consider this Southern-adjacent Fried Asian.

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Books, Interview, Star Wars

Emma Mieko Candon on Continuing ‘Star Wars: Visions’ in New ‘Ronin’ Novel

Lauren Lola

Emma Mieko Candon likes to write stories that pull from her love for ‘90’s action movies. Being a fan of film franchises like The Mummy and Star Wars, she likes stories that can be quippy and fun, but she also cleaves on philosophical angst. As a new author on the scene, she wants to write action adventures, filled with a lot of queer people of color and an underlying current of a fraught metaphor.

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Books, Interview, Sci Fi1 Comment

Author Katrina Olan Discusses the Making of Mecha-Centric Sci-Fi Novel, ‘Tablay’

Lauren Lola

In the fall of 2019, sci-fi and comics fans in the Philippines were transported to the 22nd century in Katrina Olan’s novel, Tablay. War has been raging for generations between the Philippine Mech Force and hostile machine life called aswangs. When a mecha pilot finds out that the enemy is creating a super weapon of drastic proportions, she and her partner must find a way to stop it before it is too late.

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