This post was updated April 24 at 9:01 p.m.

Jason Tanamor’s latest novel, “The Legend of Sensei Tsinelas,” is all about the world’s greatest superpower – one’s own identity.

The alumnus’ newest publication, which hits shelves May 13, follows 17-year-old Filipino American Victor Dela Cruz – a superhero fanatic trying to find his way in a complex world. Victor struggles to assimilate to his predominantly white high school and is forced to confront his cultural heritage through a social studies project. At the same time, he is focused on proving that the boss of the food truck he works for is an undercover superhero. Throughout the story, Victor is confronted with questions about the person he wants to be as he faces the loss of his parents, bullying from his peers and a slew of other challenges.

“The book is about a Filipino teenager who is struggling with cultural identity. It’s something that I have dealt with my entire life … and I still go through that,” Tanamor said.

Tanamor chose to make this a young adult book because he wanted to target kids who are still in a stage of understanding what is right and wrong and who they want to be. Specifically, Tanamor said he made his protagonist male to create a story that encourages young men to be more open and honest about their emotions. Because society too often tells men they have to be tough, Tanamor said he wanted to tell teenage boys they are allowed to feel their emotions and embrace their cultural identity.

Tanamor added that the details of Filipino culture within the book were based largely on his own experiences growing up. Victor’s boss at the Filipino food cart, for example, resembles Tanamor’s father, both being “round, jovial” men, Tanamor said. Victor’s experiences as person of color in a predominantly white school also stem from Tanamor’s upbringing, as he said he grew up in Iowa and was often bullied by his white peers. Tanamor said he hoped to use his own life stories to create a work that represents Filipino Americans and their shared experiences.

Tanamor originally began writing fiction after a workshop with “Fight Club” author Chuck Palahniuk and wanted to emulate Palahniuk’s style of writing. But he said he quickly realized that was not what he wanted to do. He instead pivoted into writing stories about Filipino culture, whether they be historical fiction or young adult. He wanted people of all ages to accept their identities and hoped to achieve this goal in a less didactic way, which he said led him to focus more on a superhero theme. Tanamor added that a more dynamic story, such as this, would garner his audience’s attention but also give him space to create deeper messages for younger people of color.

Luis Ramos, a friend of Tanamor’s and an editor on the project, attested to Tanamor’s dedication to uplifting Filipino culture. Having known Tanamor for nearly four years, Ramos also worked on Tanamor’s previous novel, “Love, Dance & Egg Rolls,” but said he found something about Tanamor’s latest work more compelling.

“If you know Jason and his writing, he’s always championing Filipino culture and protagonists, and he’s always said there aren’t many Filipino books out there, especially in the YA space,” Ramos said. “The main thing that I really liked about it (was) that it’s very unique to the Filipino American experience, and it’s also very unique to Jason. I think he puts a lot of personality and his personal upbringing into it.”

Tanamor strives to bring Filipino culture into the limelight. He said the publishing and editing spheres still have a long way to go in accepting more diverse stories. While getting reviews on his last project, Tanamor said he received feedback trying to correct him on details specific to Filipino culture, such as what the traditional dish lumpia is. Tanamor added that he was surprised to receive such comments, especially from people who did not know his culture as intimately as him. With “The Legend of Sensei Tsinelas,” Tanamor said he pushed for sensitivity readers and also reached out to Filipino student associations to ask for more personal feedback from individuals who relate more closely to the experiences he wrote about.

Annie Egghart, a project manager on the book and a member of the university publishing company Ooligan Press, also pushed for increased diversity in publishing and editing. Egghart said over the last several years, it has become increasingly important for Ooligan to promote and publish novels from authors with diverse backgrounds.

“I think that this is something Ooligan really cares about. … We used to have about 25% of our books from POC authors, but we’re up to about 75%, so we’ve done a lot more of an effort to push that. … Even working through with Jason on making sure everything was the way he wanted it to be was something that we prioritized during the editing stage,” Egghart said.

Tanamor is part of a movement within the writing community focused on producing a wider variety of stories that reflect the broad spectrum of human experiences. Tanamor said he does his best to talk about Filipino culture from a closer perspective, intertwining his own life stories to add depth to his retelling of distinctive aspects of Filipino culture.

“I think this story was just for me and the little Filipino kids that follow me. I just want something for them to feel like they’re included,” Tanamor said.