Yiyun Li

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The native form of this personal name is Li Yiyun. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
Yiyun Li
Native name
李翊雲
Born (1972-11-04) November 4, 1972 (age 51)
Beijing, China
OccupationAuthor, professor
LanguageEnglish
NationalityChinese
Alma materPeking University
University of Iowa
Iowa Writers' Workshop
Notable works
Notable awardsMacArthur Fellow
Guggenheim Fellowship
Children2
Website
yiyunli.com

Yiyun Li (born November 4, 1972) is a Chinese-born writer and professor in the United States. Her short stories and novels have won several awards, including the PEN/Hemingway Award and Guardian First Book Award for A Thousand Years of Good Prayers,[1][2] the 2020 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award for Where Reasons End,[3] and the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for The Book of Goose.[4] She is an editor of the Brooklyn-based literary magazine A Public Space.[5]

Biography[edit]

Li was born and raised in Beijing, China.[6][7] Her mother was a teacher and her father worked as a nuclear physicist.[8] In Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life, Li recounts moments from her early life, including the abuse she received from her mother.[9]

Following a compulsory year of service in the People's Liberation Army,[6] she went on to earn a Bachelor of Science at Peking University in 1996. In the same year she moved to the US.[1] In 2000, she earned an Master of Science in immunology at the University of Iowa.[10] In 2005, she earned an Master of Fine Arts in creative nonfiction and fiction from The Nonfiction Writing Program and the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.[10]

Li's stories and essays have been published in The New Yorker,[11] The Paris Review, and Zoetrope: All-Story. Two of the stories from A Thousand Years of Good Prayers were adapted into 2007 films directed by Wayne Wang: The Princess of Nebraska and the title story, which Li adapted herself.

Yiyun Li lived in Oakland, California from 2005- 2008 with her husband and their two sons. During that time, she taught at Mills College.[12] From 2008-2017, she moved out of Oakland to assume a faculty position at the Department of English at the University of California, Davis.[12] Since 2017, she has taught creative writing at Princeton University.[12]

Li had a breakdown in 2012 and attempted suicide twice.[13][9] After recuperating and leaving the hospital, she lost interest in writing fiction, and for a whole year, she focused on reading several biographies, memoirs, diaries and journals. According to her, reading about other people's lives "was a comfort."[13] Her experiences with depression resulted in her 2017 memoir Dear Friend.[13] A few months after the book was published, her sixteen-year-old son, Vincent, killed himself,[9][10] which she explored in her 2019 novel Where Reasons End.[14][15]

In September 2022, Li published The Book of Goose, a tale of a literary hoax spun by two thirteen-year-old girls in post-war France. The New York Times described it as 'an existential fable that illuminates the tangle of motives behind our writing of stories.'.[16] In April 2023, the novel won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.[17]

Li has taught fiction at the University of California, Davis and is a professor of creative writing at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University.[18]

On 16 February 2024, her nineteen-year-old son, James, was fatally hit by a train in the Princeton township.[19]

Award and honours[edit]

Li has received several notable fellowships, including the Lannan Foundation residency in Marfa, Texas; a MacArthur Foundation fellowship (2010),[20][21] and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2020).[22]

In 2007, Granta named Li in their list of the 21 best young American novelists.[23] In 2010, she was listed among The New Yorker's "20 Under 40."

In 2012, Li was selected as a judge for The Story Prize after having been a finalist for the award in 2010,[24] and in 2013, she judged the Man Booker International Prize.[25]

In 2014, she won The American Academy of Arts and Letters's Benjamin H. Danks Award. In 2020, she won the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for Fiction,[26][27][28] and in 2022, she won the PEN/Malamud Award, which "recognizes writers who have demonstrated exceptional achievement in the short story form."[29][30]

In 2023, she was elected as a Royal Society of Literature International Writer.[31]

In 2024, she was named a finalist for The Story Prize.[32]

Awards for Li's writing
Year Title Award Result Ref.
2005 A Thousand Years of Good Prayers Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award Winner [33]
2006 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award Winner [1]
Guardian First Book Award Winner [34]
Whiting Award for Fiction Winner [35][36]
California Book Award for Fiction Winner
2010 Gold Boy, Emerald Girl The Story Prize Finalist [37][38]
The Vagrants RUSA Notable Books for Adults Selection [39][40]
2011 Gold Boy, Emerald Girl Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award Shortlist [41][42]
NCIBA Book of the Year Award for Fiction Winner [43]
St. Francis College Literary Prize Finalist [44]
The Vagrants International Dublin Literary Award Finalist [45][46]
2015 "A Sheltered Woman" Sunday Times Short Story Award Winner [47][48]
2020 Where Reasons End PEN/Jean Stein Book Award Winner [3][49][50]
2023 The Book of Goose PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Winner [51][52]
Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction Longlist [53]

Publications[edit]

Novels[edit]

  • — (2009). The Vagrants. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6313-0. LCCN 2008023467. OCLC 229028064.
  • — (2014). Kinder Than Solitude. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6814-2. LCCN 2013017307. OCLC 842323189.
  • — (2019). Where Reasons End. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-1-984817-37-2. LCCN 2018013429. OCLC 1030447783.
  • — (2020). Must I Go. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-399-58912-6. LCCN 2019048747. OCLC 1125306132.
  • — (2022). The Book of Goose. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-60634-3. LCCN 2022022703. OCLC 1289234580.

Memoir[edit]

  • Li, Yiyun (2017). Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life. Random House.

Short fiction[edit]

Collections[edit]

  • Li, Yiyun (2005). A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. Random House.
  • — (2010). Gold boy, emerald girl. Random House.
  • — (2023). Wednesday's Child. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Short stories[edit]

Title Year First published Reprinted/collected
Extra 2003 "Extra". New Yorker. December 14, 2003.
The Proprietress 2005 "The Proprietress". Zoetrope: All-Story. 9 (4). Fall 2005.
House Fire 2007 "House Fire". Granta. 97: Best of Young American Novelists 2. Spring 2007.
Prison 2006 "Prison". Tin House (28). Summer 2006. Li, Yiyun (2008). "Prison". In Furman, Laura (ed.). The O. Henry Prize stories 2008. New York: Anchor Books.
A Man Like Him 2008 "A Man Like Him". New Yorker. May 12, 2008. Li, Yiyun (2009). "A man like him". In Sebold, Alice (ed.). The best American short stories 2009. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Alone 2009 "Alone". New Yorker. November 16, 2009.
The Science Of Flight 2010 "The Science Of Flight". New Yorker. August 30, 2010.
A Small Sacrifice 2010 "A Small Sacrifice". The Threepenny Review. 123. Fall 2010.
A Sheltered Woman 2014 "A Sheltered Woman". New Yorker. March 10, 2014. Li, Yiyun (2015). A Sheltered Woman. HarperCollins.
On The Street Where You Live 2017 "On The Street Where You Live". New Yorker. January 9, 2017.
A Small Flame 2017 "A Small Flame". The New Yorker. 93 (12): 54–61. May 8, 2017.
A Flawless Silence 2018 A Flawless Silence. New Yorker. April 23, 2018
When We Were Happy We Had Other Names 2018 When We Were Happy We Had Other Names. New Yorker. September 24, 2019
All Will Be Well 2019 All Will Be Well. New Yorker. March 11, 2019
The Ability to Cry 2020 The Ability to Cry. New Yorker. November 16, 2020
If You Are Lonely and You Know It 2021 If You Are Lonely and You Know It. Amazon Original Stories. February 25, 2021
Hello, Goodbye 2021 Hello, Goodbye. New Yorker. November 8, 2021
Wednesday's Child 2023 Wednesday's Child. New Yorker. January 23, 2023

Essays and reporting[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "Interview with Yiyun Li, 2006 PEN/Hemingway Award Winner". The Hemingway Society. Retrieved 2019-05-05.
  2. ^ Guardian Staff (2006-12-06). "Interview with Guardian First Book Award winner Yiyun Li". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-05-05.
  3. ^ a b "Yiyun Li receives PEN/Jean Stein Book Award for originality, merit and impact". Princeton University. 2020-03-03. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
  4. ^ "Yiyun Li's 'The Book of Goose' wins PEN/Faulkner award". AP News. April 4, 2023. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  5. ^ A Public Space.
  6. ^ a b Altmann, Jennifer. "Creative Writing: Life, By the Book". Princeton Alumni Weekly (June 6, 2018 ed.). Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  7. ^ Thompson, Bob (28 December 2005). "Proving the extraordinary". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  8. ^ Laity, Paul (24 February 2017). "Yiyun Li: 'I used to say that I was not an autobiographical writer – that was a lie'". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  9. ^ a b c Armitstead, Claire (2022-09-18). "Yiyun Li: 'I'm not that nice friendly Chinese lady who writes… Being subversive is important to me'". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  10. ^ a b c Strong, Lynn Steger (2022-09-20). "How novelist Yiyun Li learned to capture shadows". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  11. ^ "Yiyun Li". The New Yorker. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  12. ^ a b c "Yiyun Li – The Oakland Artists Project". Retrieved 2024-01-15.
  13. ^ a b c Laity, Paul (2017-02-24). "Yiyun Li: 'I used to say that I was not an autobiographical writer – that was a lie'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-07-12.
  14. ^ "Yiyun Li navigates the loss of a child in her heartbreaking new novel". CBC Radio. 2019-10-18. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  15. ^ Sehgal, Parul (2019-01-22). "A Mother Loses a Son to Suicide, but Their Dialogue Continues". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  16. ^ O'Grady, Megan (18 September 2022). "Why Write? Yiyun Li's New Novel Explores Our Urge to Invent". The New York Times. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
  17. ^ "Announcing the Winner of the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction". PEN/Faulkner. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
  18. ^ "Yiyun Li". Lewis Center for the Arts. Retrieved 2018-05-12.
  19. ^ The Office of Communications of Princeton University (20 Feb 2024). "The University community mourns the loss of undergraduate James Li". Princeton University. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  20. ^ "Awards: MacArthur Fellows; Independent Booksellers Book Prize". Shelf Awareness. 2010-09-28. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  21. ^ "Yiyun Li - Professor of English". University of California, Davis. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
  22. ^ "Yiyun Li". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  23. ^ Lea, Richard (2007-03-05). "Granta nominates best young US novelists". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  24. ^ "Story Prize Judges Named". Shelf Awareness. 2012-10-17. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  25. ^ "2013 Man Booker International Prize Finalists Announced". Publishers Weekly. 2013-01-24. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  26. ^ "Citation for Yiyun Li". Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes. Archived from the original on 2022-12-01. Retrieved 2023-01-06.
  27. ^ "Awards: Rathbones Folio, Windham Campbell Winners". Shelf Awareness. 2020-03-24. Archived from the original on 2022-10-27. Retrieved 2023-03-14.
  28. ^ Nawotka, Ed (2020-03-19). "Eight Writers Awarded $165,000 Windham-Campbell Prizes". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  29. ^ "Yiyun Li Wins the 2022 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story". PEN/Faulkner. 2022-05-16. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  30. ^ "Awards: PEN/Malamud, Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator Winners". Shelf Awareness. 2022-05-17. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  31. ^ "RSL International Writers | 2023 International Writers". Royal Society of Literature. 3 September 2023. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
  32. ^ "Here are this year's finalists for The Story Prize". LitHub. 9 January 2024. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  33. ^ Crown, Sarah (26 September 2005). "Inaugural short story award goes to debut author". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
  34. ^ "Guardian first book award: all the winners". The Guardian. 2016-04-07. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  35. ^ "Awards: The Whiting Writers' Awards". Shelf Awareness. 2006-10-26. Retrieved 2022-03-26.
  36. ^ "Awards: The Whiting Writers' Awards". Shelf Awareness. 2006-10-26. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  37. ^ "TSP: Anthony Doerr's Memory Wall Wins The Story Prize". The Story Prize. 2011-03-03. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  38. ^ "Awards: Story Prize; American History Book; Believer Shortlist". Shelf Awareness. 2011-03-04. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  39. ^ "The Vagrants: A Novel | Awards & Grants". American Library Association. 2010-01-18. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  40. ^ Markel, Liz (2010-01-17). "Outstanding fiction, non-fiction and poetry titles named to 2010 Notable Books List for adult readers". American Library Association. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  41. ^ Flood, Alison (2011-07-12). "Strong showing for Irish writers on Frank O'Connor shortlist". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  42. ^ "Awards: Frank O'Connor Shortlist; COVR Visionary Winners". Shelf Awareness. 2011-07-13. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  43. ^ "Awards: NCIBA Books of the Year; Griffin Poetry Prize". Shelf Awareness. 2011-04-06. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  44. ^ "Awards: St. Francis College Literary Prize". Shelf Awareness. 2011-09-23. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  45. ^ Taylor, Charlie (15 June 2011). "Colum McCann wins Impac award". The Irish Times. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  46. ^ "Awards: Orange; Impac Dublin; Wodehouse Prize". Shelf Awareness. 2011-04-13. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  47. ^ "Yiyun Li Wins Sunday Times Short Story Award". Department of English. University of California Davis. 2015-05-26. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  48. ^ "Awards: Sunday Times EFG Short Story; James Beard; Encore". Shelf Awareness. 2015-04-28. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  49. ^ "PEN America Literary Award Winners Honored". Shelf Awareness. 2020-03-04. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  50. ^ Reid, Calvin (2020-03-04). "Writers Li, Lok, de Waal Win Big at PEN Lit Awards". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  51. ^ Schaub, Michael (2023-04-05). "Yiyun Li Wins the PEN/Faulkner Award for 2023". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  52. ^ "Awards: PEN/Faulkner for Fiction, Anisfield-Wolf, Windham-Campbell Winners". Shelf Awareness. 2023-04-05. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  53. ^ "2023 Winners". Reference and User Services Association (RUSA). 2022-10-03. Retrieved 2023-04-06.

External links[edit]

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