Ryka Aoki Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Picture Books

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Ryka Aoki is a teacher, composer, poet and author of science fiction novels. Her work has been featured in all manner of prestigious places including the Huffington Post, Vogue, The San Francisco Bay Times, Elle, Buzzfeed, Publishers Weekly, The Guardian, and Bustle among many other places.

“Are you okay?” which is one of her most popular poetical works, was a part of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific Centers curation by Franny Choi. She has also been honored for her commitment to the wellbeing and visibility of Transgender people by the California Senate.

Ryka has also appeared in several documentaries in addition to acting and writing in award winning films such as Transfinite. The award winning author has been nominated for many awards over the years, including the Academy of American Poets University Award among several others.

In addition to writing and performing, she has been involved in martial arts and self defense and has presented at events all over Southern California. She is also a half decent pianist and works a day job at Santa Monica College, where she is a professor of English.

Aoki went to Cornell University, from where she studied for her creative writing master of fine arts degree. Once she graduated from college, she went on to do a lot of work in her field of study, even as she participated in transgender activism.

Over the years, she has also won several awasrds for her work and activism in the transgender community. As a transgender woman, Ryka Aoki has always strived to write not just for her primary trans readers, but also for their families and other people in general.

He Mele a Hilo, which is one of her most popular works, chronicles her experiences in Hawaii. By writing for general audiences rather than just for trans gendered people, Ryka believes that she can help transform other people’s opinions on the humanity of transgender people.

According to the author, if a trans artist manages to make his audience emotional by playing a classic piece, it is easier for the audience to regard her as human. The same can then be applied to how a queer transgender Asian author will make audiences connect with belioved grandmothers, hometown beaches and sunsets.

Ryka Aoki cannot remember a time when she was not a writer. While over the years she has done a lot of things and held a lot of jobs, she has always come back to writing.
Growing up, she used to love fantasy and science fiction literature. During this time she fell in love with the short story by reading magazines such as “Amazing” and “Analog.” She also liked the self assured writing and the hint of overindulgence in Nightfall by Isaac Asimov.

When it came to her own writing, she was not yet very aware of her outsider identity and nonwhite background. Over time, he realized that for people like her, saving the world was just not meant for them.

As she evolved over time, she resonated more with writers such as Primo Levi and Toni Morrison, who wrote of people and setting much closer to her experience. As such, she started channeling her writing into essays, literary fiction and poetry.

She came back into speculative fiction when she was engaged by a trans speculative anthology that contracted her to write a short story. It gave her a very familiar thrill and thereafter, there was nothing she wanted to do better than write science fiction.

Having watched a lot of manga and anime such as “Macross,” “Aria,” “Sailor Moon” and “Space Battleship Yamato,” she knew there was a lot she could contribute to the genre.

Ryka Aoki’s novel “Light from Uncommon Stars” is a beautiful story that tells of a woman who made a deal with the devil. Shizuka Satomi now wants to avoid eternal damnation but to do so, she will have to entice several violin prodigies to trade in their souls in order to achieve the success they crave.
She has been hard at work and has so far managed to deliver six. When Shizuka hears a young transgender woman named Katrina Nguyen play, she knows that she is just the seventh candidate she needs to lift the curse.

But then Shizuka goes on a little trip to the San Gabriel Valley. While taking some coffee off the bustling highway, she meets mother of four, interstellar refugee, and retired starship captain Lan Tran. With her soul on the line, she does not have much time for donuts and coffee dates or crushes.
However, Lan has eyes like stars and a kind smile that could just redefine the worth of a soul. Maybe a coffee date with donuts may be what she needs to break a curse she has carried around for years. As their lives get entangled by fate and chance, it makes for a story of hope, magic, curses and identity.

“He Mele A Hilo” by Ryka Aoki opens to something bizarre happening in the small town of Hilo. Noleani Choi has a new show that chronicles the life of Jesus which she tells in hula dance.

This show has everyone wondering what she was thinking coming up with it.. The hula dancers first need to determine who is Hawaiian enough to perform the dance. The story has several characters all of whom hurt one way or another due to either illness or hurting in a variety of different ways.

They all seem unable to move on from the sins of their fathers, feeling lost or out of place or mourning the loss of a spouse. But with the characters interacting with each other more they come to understand each other’s problems. Slowly over time, they start showing their own true selves, which might just result in the healing they need.

The novel is a deeply Hawaiian story though it does have a fair amount of magical realism. It is all about doing what feels right, living in the moment, and being in touch with the environment and the people around you.