Since 1998, The Asian American Writers' Workshop has presented the highest literary honor for writers of Asian American descent. We believe we are the only national organization that actively solicits 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, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Susan Choi, Booker Prize Finalist Amitav Ghosh, American Book Award winner Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, and Guggenheim Fellow Arthur Sze, among many others. As these writers show, Asian American literature is not just a niche genre, but a central chapter in our nation's literature.

The Annual Asian American Literary Awards honor Asian American writers for excellence in three categories: (1) fiction, (2) poetry, and (3) nonfiction. Literary awards recipients are determined by a national panel of judges who are selected on the basis of expertise in a literary genre and/or experience in academic environments relevant to Asian American literature; residence in the U.S. and ethnic background as to create a diverse committee. To qualify for our next award, a work must have been written by an individual of Asian descent living in the United States and published originally in English during the calendar year preceding the award year (for example, works published in 2009 are eligible for the 2010 Literary Awards). No self-published works will be considered. Award submissions are accepted in spring, with award recipients announced in Fall, and publicly presented during our Winter awards ceremony and literary festival.

Lifetime Achievement Award. The Workshop has also recognized notable writers and cultural figures for their contribution to Asian American literature through a lifetime achievement award. Past winners of this award include Maxine Hong Kingston, David Henry Hwang, and Sonny Mehta.

Members' Choice Award. The Asian American Literary Awards Ceremony also features the Members' Choice Award. Initiated in 2000, the Members' Choice Award allows Workshop members to choose their favorite title of the previous publishing year. In order to participate in voting for this award, you must be a current member of The Asian American Writers' Workshop. Titles may only be eligible for consideration of Members' Choice Award if they have been entered in the Annual Asian American Literary Awards in one of the three categories above.

Applications for the upcoming Twelfth Annual Asian American Literary Awards are due Friday, June 11, 2010 Friday, June 28, 2010 [DEADLINE EXTENDED]. Please download the newest application and guidelines below.

Download 2010 awards application

Download 2010 awards guidelines

List of Winners
2010
Paul Yoon	Once the Shore	Sarabande Books, 2009
Minal Hajratwala	Leaving India: My Family's Journey From Five Villages to Five Continents	HoughtonMifflinHarcourt, 2009
Ronaldo V. Wilson	Poems of the Black Object	Futurepoem Books, 2009
Jason Koo *	Man on Extremely Small Island	C&R Press, 2009
2009
Jhumpa Lahiri	Unaccustomed Earth	Knopf, 2008
Sesshu Foster	World Ball Notebook	City Lights Books, 2008
Leslie T. Chang	Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China	Spiegel & Grau, 2009
2008
Mohsin Hamid	The Reluctant Fundamentalist	Harcourt, 2007
Vijay Prashad	The Darker Nations	New Press, 2007
Sun Yung Shin	Skirt Full of Black	Coffee House Press, 2007
Ed Lin *	This Is a Bust	Kaya Press, 2007
2007
Linh Dinh	Borderless Bodies	Factory School, 2006
Amitav Ghosh	Incendiary Circumstances: A Chronicle of the Turmoil of Our Times	Houghton Mifflin, 2006
Samrat Upadhyay	The Royal Ghosts	Houghton Mifflin, 2006
Gene Yuen Yang*	American Born Chinese	First Second Books, 2006
2006
Jeff Chang	Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation	Picador USA, 2005
Rattawut Lapcharoensap	Sightseeing	Grove Press, 2005
Shanxing Wang	Mad Science in Imperial City	Futurepoem Books, 2005
Ed Bok Lee *	Real Karaoke People	New Rivers Press, 2005
2005
Brian Leung	World Famous Love Acts	Sarabande Books, 2004
Suketu Mehta	Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found	Alfred Knopf, 2004
Srikanth Reddy	Facts for Visitors	Univ of California Press, 2004
Ishle Yi Park *	The Temperature of this Water	Kaya Press, 2004
2004
Mei-mei Berssenbrugge	Nest	Kelsey St. Press, 2003
Monique Truong	The Book of Salt	Houghton Mifflin, 2003
Vijay Vaitheeswaran	Power to the People	Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2003
Patrick Rosal *	Uprock, Headspin, Scramble and Dive	Persea Books, 2003
2003
Walter Lew	Treadwinds: Poems and Intermedia Texts	Wesleyan University Press, 2002
Meera Nair	Video: Stories	Pantheon Books, 2002
Julie Otsuka	When the Emporer Was Divine	Alfred A. Knopf, 2002
Ed Lin *	Waylaid	Kaya Press, 2002
2002
Alexander Chee	Edinburgh	Welcome Rain Press, 2001
Luis H. Francia	Eye of the Fish: A Personal Archipelago	Kaya Press, 2001
Christina Chiu	Troublemaker and Other Saints	Little, Brown and Company, 2001
Don Lee *	Yellow	W.W. Norton, 2001
2001
Ha Jin	Bridegroom and Other Stories	Pantheon, 2000
Eugene Gloria	Drivers at the Short Time Motel: Poems	Penguin, 2000
Akhil Sharma	An Obedient Father	Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2000
Nick Carbo *	Secret Asian Man	Tia Chucha Press, 2000
2000
Eric Gamalinda	Zero Gravity	Alice James Books, 1999
Chang-rae Lee	A Gesture Life	Riverhead Books, 1999
Bino Realuyo *	Umbrella Country	Ballantine, 1999
1999
Susan Choi	The Foreign Student	HarperCollins Publishers, 1998
Arthur Sze	The Redshifting Web: Poems 1970-98	Copper Canyon Press, 1998
1998
Mei-mei Berssenbrugge	Endocrinology	Kelsey Street Press, 1997
Lois-Ann Yamanaka	Blu's Hanging	Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1997
* = Member's Choice Award

Lifetime Achievement Award Winners
Sonny Mehta	2009
David Henry Hwang	2008
Maxine Hong Kingston	2006