Hooray! Marikit and the Ocean of Stars is a 2026 Nēnē Award Nominee!

Marikit had been a part of the 2025 list, and just making it to the shortlist is already an honor. A big thank you to our young readers in Hawai’i!

What gives me great joy is the diverse selection of books, including Filipino-American authors Erin Entrada Kelly’s highly awarded The First State of Being, and Joanna Cacao’s The Secret of Ravens. Ellen Oh’s anthology You Are Here includes Filipino authors such as the spectacular Randy Ribay. We also have another Filipino-American in the Graphic Novels shortlist, Zachary Sterling’s Mabuhay!

See, here. The Filipinos are seen. And are winning (with or without the award). And there will be more of our stories to come.

Celebrating everyone on the list!