ŷ������

Our second quarterly challenge in 2022 is to read:

1 - books by authors of Polynesian or Pacific Islander descent, or those living in one of the 6 Polynesian countries (New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Samoa) - whether fiction or non-fiction; and/or

2. speculative fiction

Our challenge started on 1 April 2022, and ends 30 June 2022. Our May group read selections fall under this theme, so if you join in, you've got 2 - 3 qualifying novels.

Let's use this thread to capture our plans, thoughts and conversations about it. Each member can choose to focus solely on one of the two themes, or read works from each theme, as you choose. The Polynesian/Pacific Islander theme is one where crowd-sourcing is particularly helpful, so please share any resources or recommendations, even if you haven't read a work yet, to help other members who want to participate find their way. The debate about what is or isn't speculative fiction is often fascinating and one you are welcome to raise and discuss here.

Feel free to set up your own threads to capture your progress, or comment here. If you want to use a widget to help you shelve and track your challenge reads, here's a link: /challenges/...

Do you plan to participate? Let us know what you're thinking about reading for these themes.

I'm finding myself craving speculative fiction at the minute despite having gone off it for the last couple of years. Perhaps because the 'real world' is just so awful at the minute... So this challenge has come at the perfect time for me! I prefer magical realism to high fantasy or sci fi as I find that these often spend too long describing/creating entirely new worlds that they lack on the character development side which is what I love to read. I also struggle sometimes to determine which category a lot of books fall into so I just lump everything together into speculative if it doesn't take place in the current or past 'real world'.

I'll definately be trying 3 speculative works from the women's prize longlist:
The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
This One Sky Day by Leone Ross
Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejide

And continuing with the indigenous authors challenge with these speculative reads:
Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline
Continuing Eden Robinson's Trickster trilogy
And exploring Darcie Little Badger's work

I also plan on reading 1 work from the pacific islander side. Probably Where We Once Belonged by Sia Figiel

@Hannah - These are great lists.

I haven't yet read any of Ozeki and you've inspired me to solve for that. (Plus, I don't read enough Canadian authors.)

For folks seeking inspiration and/or lists on for American Pacific Islander authors, Grammarly published this 2021 one which seems fresh at a glance. (includes male authors).

Women authors mentioned are:

Erin Entrada Kelly (Filipino American) (Hello, Universe, Lalani of the Distant Sea, The Land of Forgotten Girls)

Kiana Davenport (Native Hawaiian) (Shark Dialogues, The Spy Lover

Sia Figiel (Samoan performance poet and novelist) (Where We Once Belonged, The Girl in the Moon Circle, They Who Do Not Grieve, To a Young Artist in Contemplation: Poetry & Prose

Hanya Yanagihara (novelist and editor) (4th gen Hawaiian, daughter of a Korean-born mom and Japanese-born dad) (A Little Life, The People in the Trees)



This author also includes as "Asian American Pacific Islander" Min Jin Lee (South Korean born), Jenny Han (Korean American), Viet Thanh Nguyen (Vietnamese American),Jhumpa Lahiri (Indian descent), Alexander Chee (Korean American), Cathy Park Hong (Korean American), Ruth Ozeki (Japanese Canadian), Weike Wang (Chinese American), Charles Yu (Chinese American), and Ocean Vuong (Vietnamese American), which made me tilt my head to the side because maybe I don't understand the parameters of Pacific Islander heritage. I think the author didn't understand the assignment, or didn't select the headline.

This is the description for PI that I've used in my own challenges and nominations in the past: "As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Oceania (Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia)." This Britannica article suggests that the term, Pacific Islands, "conventionally excludes the neighbouring island continent of Australia, the Asia-related Indonesian, Philippine, and Japanese archipelagoes, and the Ryukyu, Bonin, Volcano, and Kuril island arcs that project seaward from Japan. Neither does the term include the Aleutian chain or such isolated islands of the Pacific Ocean as the Juan Fernández group off the coast of South America."

it goes on to state that "Oceania," without more, includes all of the above.

I learn so much from exploring the contours of our challenges via Mr. Google. I hope this is of interest to other members, as well. The net is, we originally considered this prong of our challenge theme to be limited in scope to the more narrow definition, but the larger goal as always is to expand our reading as individual members, so if you take a broad view of what it means to be of Pacific Islander descent, and if that leads you to explore perspectives from Oceania, writ large, you're free to do so in this challenge.

For those of you with more knowledge of Oceania and the Pacific Islands, how do you apply and use these terms? Do you have any guidance for readers choosing between the inclusive vs exclusive category boundaries?

Speculative Fiction

Here's a link to our speculative fiction thread, which includes some great recommendations and context.

/topic/show/...

Polynesia or Pacific Islander Authors

I've done some poking around in order to make it easy for members to find authors and books to read for this challenge. Moreover, if you're working on a Read Around the World Challenge, this challenge is the perfect opportunity to tackle several countries where accessibility is sometimes a barrier, e.g., purchasing takes more research. If you want to request that your library purchase one or two novels, this is your prompt to submit your request form so the books come in between now and June.

Filipino American authors /topic/show/...

Pasifika Books to Note (includes male authors, but is a lovely robust list)

From the Midkiff (Honolulu) Learning Center - Pacific Island Literature (note the pulldown menus for Samoan and Maori Lit; includes male authors)

Polynesia
a personal blog, lore and lullabies, of a New-Zealand-born, Australian resident

Samoa

WNDB published this blog in 2020 for Pacific Islander Heritage Month and - if you scroll down - its list of Samoan women authors, with direct links to GR bios, is an awesome resource.


New Zealand

On the 2022 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, NZ's top literary awards, long and shortlists (winners to be ann'd 11 May):
Shortlisted titles by women authors:
A Good Winter by Gigi Fenster
Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly
Kurangaituku by Whiti Hereaka
Rangikura by Tayi Tibble - poetry
Sleeping With Stones by Serie Barford - poetry
The Sea Walks into a Wall by Anne Kennedy - poetry
tumble by Joanna Preston - poetry
Dressed: Fashionable dress in Aotearoa New Zealand 1840 to 1910 by Claire Regnault - nonfiction
NUKU: Stories of 100 indigenous women by Qiane Matata-Sipu - nonfiction
Shifting Grounds: Deep Histories of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland by Lucy Mackintosh - nonfiction
The Architect and the Artists: Hackshaw, McCahon, Dibble by Bridget Hackshaw - nonfiction
From the Centre: A Writer's Life by Patricia Grace - nonfiction
The Mirror Book by Charlotte Grimshaw - nonfiction

Christchurch City Libraries list of best New Zealand fiction by women authors

Solomon Islands

(includes men; descriptions are succinct, but enough)

All these different geographical definitions are so confusing! I had completely misunderstood what oceania was so thanks for sharing Carol, I do find it interesting. And I agree that author must have misunderstood, I don't see how most of those authors could possibly fit.

I just wanted to add that my list of indigenous reads are all speculative. I've discovered that I really love this crossover. I'm really enjoying Elatsoe atm, set in a world similar to our own but some people have magical abilities such as being able to bring back beloved dog companions as faithful, protective ghosts (if only).

And Carol, I highly recommend A Tale for the Time Being. It was my first Ozeki and I've just finished it. I loved it so much I immediately wanted to read everything that she's written

Hannah wrote: "All these different geographical definitions are so confusing! I had completely misunderstood what oceania was so thanks for sharing Carol, I do find it interesting. And I agree that author must ha..."

Thanks for that rec, Hannah. I'll start with that one.

How's everyone doing with this challenge? Have you read any 4* or 5* reads? Anything you're most excited about reading soon?

Two, possibly three, depending on how speculative fiction's defined.

Yoko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth which I recommend; a vintage novel by Stella Benson, Living Alone a bit of a mess but fascinating overall; and a collection of 'weird tales' by D. K. Broster which may/may not fit the bill?

I have read 3, if you count mythology as speculative fiction? All of them are 4* reads for me:
Elatsoe
Galatea
Trickster Drift

And I'm enjoying Octavia Butler's Dawn
Next on my speculative list is A Snake Falls to Earth and I hope to get a copy of that Tawada once it's released.

I'm really glad this challenge has come at this time. I'm currently experiencing the stress & anxiety of mortgages and house buying for the first (and hopefully last!) time in my life and these lighter, easy reads are exactly what I need! This is why I haven't yet gotten to my Pacific islander choice, and I'm not sure that I will this quarter

I am currently on my third book for this challenge, The Sentence. It has some supernatural elements (a ghost, a possibly magic book) but is also very much rooted in 2020 USA (COVID, George Floyd), so I have questioned whether it qualifies as speculative.

The other two books I have read so far are Kindred and Sea of Tranquility, both of which I enjoyed very much.

Hannah wrote: "I have read 3, if you count mythology as speculative fiction? All of them are 4* reads for me:
Elatsoe
Galatea
Trickster Drift

And I'm enjoying Octa..."

Definitely a stressful process, but you get your new home to look forward to, hope it all goes really smoothly.

I think I've done pretty good this quarter.
For speculative fiction, I've read
Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge
Comfort Me with Apples by Catherynne M. Valente
And Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu.
All very good reads, imo.

For PI/Polynesian authors, I've just started The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

I'm pleased with my reads for this challenge also, all are under the spec fic category:
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
Galatea by Madeline Miller
Trickster Drift by Eden Robinson
Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger

All of these are solid 4 star reads for me and I've enjoyed this challenge immensely!!

I haven't followed through on my plan for this challenge this quarter, but am excited to move several of your reads up my TBR to read as this year progresses.

Any one else with challenge reads to recommend?