Yiyun Li

Yiyun Li is an author and translator who grew up in Beijing and moved to the United States in 1996. Her debut short story collection, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, PEN/Hemingway Award, Guardian First Book Award, and California Book Award for first fiction. Other works include The Vagrants; Gold Boy, Emerald Girl; and Kinder Than Solitude, which also earned critical acclaim. Her books have been translated into more than twenty languages. Li has received numerous awards, including a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant and a Whiting Award, among others. She was selected by Granta as one of the “21 Best Young American Novelists under 35”, and was named by The New Yorker as one of the top 20 writers under 40.  She is a contributing editor to the Brooklyn-based literary magazine, A Public Space and is teaches creative writing at the University of California, Davis.