Curtis Chin Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Curtis Chin is a director, writer, producer, and activist.

His memoir was released in 2023 from Little, Brown and Company. The book focuses on his personal experience growing up as an Asian American in the city of Detroit, which was largely black and white at the time. It also covers Curtis coming out while being a part of the working-class immigrant community and covers his time as a college student and the first generation in his family to go to college at the University of Michigan.

Curtis graduated from the University of Michigan with his degree in creative writing. During his career, Curtis has written for a variety of outlets such as Bon Appetit, CNN, the Detroit Free Press and the Boston Globe. He has also written for network television comedy shows.

Chin has also received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, ABC/Disney Television, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Chin has also received awards from the National Association for Multicultural Education, the American Librarians Association, the National Association for Ethnic Studies, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, and was a visiting scholar at New York University.

Chin has screened his films with many people in different countries that include the Lincoln Center, the White House, Amnesty International, the government of Norway, CNN, MSNBC, public radio, the Economist, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Lost Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Boston Globe, the Huffington Post, Tricycle Magazine, and more.

Curtis Chin has also co-founded the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, a non-profit all about promoting Asian American writers. He has been the Director of Outreach for the Democratic National Committee and has been part of the Asian American Leadership Committee led by Barack Obama during his Presidential Campaign in 2008.

“Dear Corky” is Curtis Chin’s most recent documentary. It was a short about the photographer Corky Lee. The documentary premiered on American Masters on PBS. Curtis is also working on a new documentary series that is about Chinese restaurants in America and their history.

Curtis has written for the television show Norm, According to Jim, American Dragon: Jake Long, The Big V, Vincent Who?, Tested, and Dear Corky.

Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant is a memoir by Curtis Chin. It is the story of his time growing up as not only a Chinese-American kid but a gay one too in Detroit in the 1980’s. If you love memoirs or just want to absorb all of the details of another artist’s life or of a certain time and a certain place, this is the perfect book for you.

Detroit in the 1980’s was a hugely volatile place to live in, but apart from everything there was a peaceful spot in all the fray. Chung’s Cantonese Cuisine was the place where any person in the city was able to sit down and enjoy a home cooked meal that is still warm.

It didn’t matter whether you were a drag queen, the mayor, a Hollywood star or a regular Jewish couple, anyone was welcome here. It was the place where Curtis Chin grew up, surrounded by all of his family.

It was the place where he first began to understand that he was able to embrace who he was as a gay ‘ABC’– American Born Chinese. There he was able to navigate through the city and all of its misfortunes. As they added up, he helped himself to wonderful servings of sweet and sour pork, almond boneless chicken, and his own culinary concoctions. Along the way, Curtis started to see what he was able to offer the world, his family, and himself.

Today Curtis Chin is a co-founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. He also structures the book around the same menu that was on the table at Chung’s. The book is an invitation and a memoir, one that takes you into the very same place he grew up in and makes it feel like home.

Honest and colorful, inspiring and humorous, this memoir from Curtis Chin is one that you simply cannot afford to pass up. Get a copy and find out why this book was an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book, winner of an Israel Fishman Nonfiction Award, a 2024 Michigan Notable Book, one of Apple Books best books of the year, and more, and book yourself a seat at one of Chung’s famous vinyl booths.