Avashia brings out universal strands in her very particular experience of growing up in Appalachia as the queer child of first-generation Indian parents. Into her poignant ruminations on food, religion, sports, family, and love, she weaves nostalgia, humor, sadness, and empathy. | Full title: Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place

A gripping story of the Texas Gulf Coast fishing community in the late 1970s. Oil companies were polluting the water, white fishermen blamed the Vietnamese refugees who had recently arrived, and racist violence erupted. And the fight for justice landed in federal court. | Full title: The Fishermen and the Dragon: Fear, Greed, and a Fight for Justice on the Gulf Coast

This memoir is as nebulous and shape-shifting as the clouds in its title. Rojas Contreras weaves family stories of her healer curandero grandfather, her mother's and her own bouts with amnesia, Colombian history, and daily interactions with the supernatural.

A young poet reflects on his harrowing 3,000-mile journey from El Salvador to the United States, shared from the point of view of his nine-year-old self. From his observations, both naive and wonder-filled, to the deep-felt experience of how kids process trauma, this is a powerful story.

In this autobiography, Shakur, a queer, Jamaican American essayist and activist, charts his political journey as he reckons with his identity, his family’s immigration from Jamaica, and the intergenerational impacts of patriarchal and colonial violence.

Samatar, a fantasy writer, applies her world-building prowess to two true stories: that of a Mennonite sect that settled in Eastern Europe in the late 1800s, and her own parallel journey, growing up half Mennonite, half Muslim in America. A digressive, evocative, and lyrical mosaic.