5 Must-Read Debuts by POC Authors
As the languid long days of summer arrive, here are seven brilliant 2025 debuts from POC authors to keep you company in the sunshine!
Sunstruck – William Rayfet Hunter
Spending summer in his friend’s French mansion, a young working-class Black man is drawn into a captivating yet thorny world of wealth and status, and finds himself conflicted by new desires and old demons.
Luminous – Silvia Park
Set in a dystopian Korea where robots are functioning members of society, estranged siblings uncover unsettling secrets about their country and family that force them to reunite and confront their mysterious past.
The Eyes of Gaza – Plestia Alaqad
Told through profoundly honest diary entries, this is harrowing yet deeply resilient account of a young Palestinian woman’s experience living through unimaginable violence, and the irrepressible spirit of her community and country.
The Original Daughter – Jemimah Wei
Two inseparable sisters navigate growing up together in working-class Singapore, until ambition and deceit tear their relationship apart, and they must reckon with the cost of success and loyalty to family left behind.
Asian/Other: Life, Poems, and the Problem of Memoir – Vidyan Ravinthiran
Moving between memoir, poetry and literary criticism, this book astutely explores what it means to be a South Asian immigrant in the West – navigating new opportunities, maintaining intergenerational relationships, and creating a home in an unfamiliar place.
By Zara Baig