Jump to content

Yiyun Li

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The native form of thispersonal nameisLi Yiyun.This article usesWestern name orderwhen mentioning individuals.
Yiyun Li
Native name
Lý dực vân
Born(1972-11-04)November 4, 1972(age 52)
Beijing,China
OccupationAuthor, professor
LanguageEnglish
EducationPeking University(BS)
University of Iowa(MS,MFA)
Notable works
Notable awardsMacArthur Fellow
Guggenheim Fellowship
Children2
Website
yiyunli.com

Yiyun Li(born November 4, 1972) is aChinese-born writer and professor in theUnited States.Her short stories and novels have won several awards, including thePEN/Hemingway AwardandGuardian First Book AwardforA Thousand Years of Good Prayers,[1][2]the 2020PEN/Jean Stein Book AwardforWhere Reasons End,[3]and the 2023PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionforThe Book of Goose.[4]Her short story collectionWednesday's Childwas a finalist for thePulitzer Prize.[5]She is an editor of the Brooklyn-based literary magazineA Public Space.[6]

Biography

[edit]

Li was born and raised inBeijing,China.[7][8]Her mother was a teacher and her father worked as a nuclear physicist.[9]InDear 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.[10]

In 1991, Li fulfilled a compulsory year of service in thePeople's Liberation Army[7]inXinyangas part of her obligations before pursuing her college education.[11]After earning aBachelor of ScienceatPeking Universityin 1996, she moved to the U.S.[1]In 2000, she earned aMaster of Scienceinimmunologyat theUniversity of Iowa.[12]In 2005, she earned aMaster of Fine Artsincreative nonfictionand fiction from The Nonfiction Writing Program and theWriters' Workshopat theUniversity of Iowa.[12]

Li's stories and essays have been published inThe New Yorker,[13]The Paris Review,Harper's,andZoetrope: All-Story.Two of the stories fromA Thousand Years of Good Prayerswere adapted into 2007 films directed byWayne Wang:The Princess of Nebraskaandthe title story,which Li adapted herself.

From 2005 to 2008, Li lived inOakland, California,with her husband and their two sons. During that time, she taught atMills College.[14]In 2008, she moved out of Oakland to join the faculty at the Department of English at theUniversity of California, Davis.[14]Since 2017, she has taught creative writing atPrinceton University.[14]

Li had a breakdown in 2012 and attempted suicide twice.[15][10]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".[15]Her experiences with depression resulted in her 2017 memoirDear Friend.[15]A few months after the book was published, her 16-year-old son, Vincent, killed himself,[10][12]which she explored in her 2019 novelWhere Reasons End.[16][17]

In September 2022, Li publishedThe Book of Goose,a tale of a literary hoax spun by two 13-year-old girls in postwarFrance.The New York Timescalled it "an existential fable that illuminates the tangle of motives behind our writing of stories."[18]In April 2023, the novel won thePEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.[19]

Li has taught fiction at theUniversity of California, Davis,and is a professor of creative writing at the Lewis Center for the Arts atPrinceton University.[20]

Li was appointed the Director of the Creative Writing Program atPrinceton Universityin 2022, succeedingJhumpa Lahiri.In this role, she focuses on fostering a vibrant community for aspiring writers at the university.[21]

On February 16, 2024, Li's 19-year-old son, James, was fatally hit by a train in the Princeton township.[22]The Middlesex County Medical Examiner's Office ruled his death a suicide.[23]

Award and honours

[edit]

Li has received several notable fellowships, including theLannan Foundationresidency inMarfa, Texas;aMacArthur Foundationfellowship;[24][25]and aGuggenheim Fellowship.[26]

In 2007,Grantaincluded Li on its list of the 21 best young American novelists.[27]In 2010, she was listed amongThe New Yorker's "20 Under 40".

In 2012, Li was selected as a judge forThe Story Prizeafter having been a finalist for the award in 2010,[28]and in 2013, she judged theMan Booker International Prize.[29]

In 2014, Li wonThe American Academy of Arts and Letters's Benjamin H. Danks Award. In 2020, she won theWindham-Campbell Literature Prizefor Fiction,[30][31][32]and in 2022, she won thePEN/Malamud Award,which "recognizes writers who have demonstrated exceptional achievement in the short story form."[33][34]

In 2023, Li was elected as aRoyal Society of LiteratureInternational Writer.[35]

In 2024, Li was named a finalist forThe Story Prize.[36]

Li was chosen to serve as a judge for the2024 Booker Prize,alongsideEdmund de Waal(chair),Sara Collins,Justine Jordan, andNitin Sawhney.[37]

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 [38]
2006 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award Winner [1]
Guardian First Book Award Winner [39]
Whiting Awardfor Fiction Winner [40][41]
California Book Awardfor Fiction Winner
2010 Gold Boy, Emerald Girl The Story Prize Finalist [42][43]
The Vagrants RUSANotable Books for Adults Selection [44][45]
2011 Gold Boy, Emerald Girl Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award Shortlist [46][47]
NCIBA Book of the Year Award for Fiction Winner [48]
St. Francis College Literary Prize Finalist [49]
The Vagrants International Dublin Literary Award Finalist [50][51]
2015 "A Sheltered Woman" Sunday Times Short Story Award Winner [52][53]
2020 Where Reasons End PEN/Jean Stein Book Award Winner [3][54][55]
2023 The Book of Goose PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Winner [56][57]
Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction Longlist [58]
2024 Wednesday's Child Pulitzer Prize Finalist [59]

Publications

[edit]

Novels

[edit]
  • — (2009).The Vagrants.New York:Random House.ISBN978-1-4000-6313-0.LCCN2008023467.OCLC229028064.
  • — (2014).Kinder Than Solitude.New York: Random House.ISBN978-1-4000-6814-2.LCCN2013017307.OCLC842323189.
  • — (2019).Where Reasons End.New York: Random House.ISBN978-1-984817-37-2.LCCN2018013429.OCLC1030447783.
  • — (2020).Must I Go.New York: Random House.ISBN978-0-399-58912-6.LCCN2019048747.OCLC1125306132.
  • — (2022).The Book of Goose.New York:Farrar, Straus and Giroux.ISBN978-0-374-60634-3.LCCN2022022703.OCLC1289234580.

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 Publication Collected in
"Immortality" The Paris Review(Fall 2003) A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
"Extra" The New Yorker(December 22-29, 2003)
"Persimmons" The Paris Review(Fall 2004)
"The Princess of Nebraska" Ploughshares(Winter 2004)
"Death Is Not a Bad Joke If Told the Right Way" Glimmer Train(Spring 2005)
"After a Life" Prospect(April 2005)
"The Proprietress" Zoetrope: All-Story9.3 (Fall 2005) Gold Boy, Emerald Girl
"Love in the Marketplace" A Thousand Years of Good Prayers(Fall 2005) A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
"Son"
"The Arrangement"
"A Thousand Years of Good Prayers"
"Prison" Tin House28 (Summer 2006) Gold Boy, Emerald Girl
"Souvenir" San Francisco Chronicle(July 9, 2006)
"House Fire" Granta97 (Spring 2007)
"Sweeping Past" The Guardian(August 10, 2007)
"A Man Like Him" The New Yorker(May 12, 2008)
"Gold Boy, Emerald Girl" The New Yorker(October 13, 2008)
"Number Three, Garden Road" Waving at the Gardener: The Asham Award Short-Story Collection(2009)
"Alone" The New Yorker(November 16, 2009) Wednesday's Child
"Kindness" A Public Space10 (2010) Gold Boy, Emerald Girl
"The Science of Flight" The New Yorker(August 30, 2010) -
"The Reunion" Washington Post Magazine(November 27, 2011) -
"A Sheltered Woman" The New Yorker(March 10, 2014) Wednesday's Child
"On the Street Where You Live" The New Yorker(January 9, 2017)
"A Small Flame" The New Yorker(May 18, 2017)
"Do Not Yet Mother Dear Find Us" * A Public Space26 (2018) * excerpt fromWhere Reasons End
"A Flawless Silence" The New Yorker(April 23, 2018) Wednesday's Child
"When We Were Happy We Had Other Names" The New Yorker(October 1, 2018)
"All Will Be Well" The New Yorker(March 11, 2019)
"Let Mothers Doubt" Esquire UK(July/August 2020)
"Under the Magnolia" The New York Times Magazine(July 12, 2020) -
"If You Are Lonely and You Know It" Amazon Original Stories(February 25, 2021) -
"Hello, Goodbye" The New Yorker(November 15, 2021) Wednesday's Child
"Such Common Life"
1. Protein
2. Hypothesis
3. Contract		 Zoetrope: All-Story
26.2 (Summer 2022)
26.3 (Fall 2022)
26.4 (Winter 2022)
"Wednesday's Child" The New Yorker(January 23, 2023)

Essays and reporting

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^abc"Interview with Yiyun Li, 2006 PEN/Hemingway Award Winner".The Hemingway Society.Retrieved2019-05-05.
  2. ^Guardian Staff (2006-12-06)."Interview with Guardian First Book Award winner Yiyun Li".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved2019-05-05.
  3. ^ab"Yiyun Li receives PEN/Jean Stein Book Award for originality, merit and impact".Princeton University.2020-03-03.Retrieved2020-03-09.
  4. ^"Yiyun Li's 'The Book of Goose' wins PEN/Faulkner award".AP News.April 4, 2023.RetrievedOctober 23,2023.
  5. ^admin (2024-05-07)."2024 Pulitzer Prize Finalists include Yiyun Li and Ed Park".Lewis Center for the Arts.Retrieved2024-07-04.
  6. ^A Public Space.
  7. ^abAltmann, Jennifer."Creative Writing: Life, By the Book".Princeton Alumni Weekly(June 6, 2018 ed.).Retrieved31 July2020.
  8. ^Thompson, Bob (28 December 2005)."Proving the extraordinary".Los Angeles Times.Retrieved31 July2020.
  9. ^Laity, Paul (24 February 2017)."Yiyun Li: 'I used to say that I was not an autobiographical writer – that was a lie'".The Guardian.Retrieved24 February2017.
  10. ^abcArmitstead, Claire (2022-09-18)."Yiyun Li: 'I'm not that nice friendly Chinese lady who writes… Being subversive is important to me'".The Observer.ISSN0029-7712.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  11. ^admin (2022-06-08)."Yiyun Li Named Director of Princeton University's Program in Creative Writing".Lewis Center for the Arts.Retrieved2024-10-26.
  12. ^abcStrong, Lynn Steger (2022-09-20)."How novelist Yiyun Li learned to capture shadows".Los Angeles Times.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  13. ^"Yiyun Li".The New Yorker.Retrieved26 February2017.
  14. ^abc"Yiyun Li – The Oakland Artists Project".Retrieved2024-01-15.
  15. ^abcLaity, Paul (2017-02-24)."Yiyun Li: 'I used to say that I was not an autobiographical writer – that was a lie'".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved2017-07-12.
  16. ^"Yiyun Li navigates the loss of a child in her heartbreaking new novel".CBC Radio.2019-10-18.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  17. ^Sehgal, Parul (2019-01-22)."A Mother Loses a Son to Suicide, but Their Dialogue Continues".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  18. ^O'Grady, Megan (18 September 2022)."Why Write? Yiyun Li's New Novel Explores Our Urge to Invent".The New York Times.RetrievedJanuary 15,2024.
  19. ^"Announcing the Winner of the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction".PEN/Faulkner.RetrievedJanuary 15,2024.
  20. ^"Yiyun Li".Lewis Center for the Arts.Retrieved2018-05-12.
  21. ^admin (2022-06-08)."Yiyun Li Named Director of Princeton University's Program in Creative Writing".Lewis Center for the Arts.Retrieved2024-10-26.
  22. ^The Office of Communications of Princeton University (20 Feb 2024)."The University community mourns the loss of undergraduate James Li".Princeton University.Retrieved2024-02-21.
  23. ^"Princeton Student Struck by Train Was Creative Writing Director's Son".Princeton Alumni Weekly.Retrieved2024-05-22.
  24. ^"Awards: MacArthur Fellows; Independent Booksellers Book Prize".Shelf Awareness.2010-09-28.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  25. ^"Yiyun Li - Professor of English".University of California, Davis.Retrieved25 February2017.
  26. ^"Yiyun Li".John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  27. ^Lea, Richard (2007-03-05)."Granta nominates best young US novelists".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  28. ^"Story Prize Judges Named".Shelf Awareness.2012-10-17.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  29. ^"2013 Man Booker International Prize Finalists Announced".Publishers Weekly.2013-01-24.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  30. ^"Citation for Yiyun Li".Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes.Archivedfrom the original on 2022-12-01.Retrieved2023-01-06.
  31. ^"Awards: Rathbones Folio, Windham Campbell Winners".Shelf Awareness.2020-03-24.Archivedfrom the original on 2022-10-27.Retrieved2023-03-14.
  32. ^Nawotka, Ed (2020-03-19)."Eight Writers Awarded $165,000 Windham-Campbell Prizes".Publishers Weekly.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  33. ^"Yiyun Li Wins the 2022 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story".PEN/Faulkner.2022-05-16.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  34. ^"Awards: PEN/Malamud, Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator Winners".Shelf Awareness.2022-05-17.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  35. ^"RSL International Writers | 2023 International Writers".Royal Society of Literature. 3 September 2023.Retrieved3 December2023.
  36. ^"Here are this year's finalists for The Story Prize".LitHub.9 January 2024.Retrieved9 January2024.
  37. ^"Meet the Booker Prize 2024 judges: 'The Booker is the Olympic gold medal of book awards' | The Booker Prizes".thebookerprizes.com.16 July 2024.Retrieved30 July2024.
  38. ^Crown, Sarah (26 September 2005)."Inaugural short story award goes to debut author".The Guardian.Retrieved14 September2011.
  39. ^"Guardian first book award: all the winners".The Guardian.2016-04-07.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  40. ^"Awards: The Whiting Writers' Awards".Shelf Awareness.2006-10-26.Retrieved2022-03-26.
  41. ^"Awards: The Whiting Writers' Awards".Shelf Awareness.2006-10-26.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  42. ^"TSP: Anthony Doerr's Memory Wall Wins The Story Prize".The Story Prize.2011-03-03.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  43. ^"Awards: Story Prize; American History Book; Believer Shortlist".Shelf Awareness.2011-03-04.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  44. ^"The Vagrants: A Novel | Awards & Grants".American Library Association.2010-01-18.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  45. ^Markel, Liz (2010-01-17)."Outstanding fiction, non-fiction and poetry titles named to 2010 Notable Books List for adult readers".American Library Association.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  46. ^Flood, Alison (2011-07-12)."Strong showing for Irish writers on Frank O'Connor shortlist".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  47. ^"Awards: Frank O'Connor Shortlist; COVR Visionary Winners".Shelf Awareness.2011-07-13.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  48. ^"Awards: NCIBA Books of the Year; Griffin Poetry Prize".Shelf Awareness.2011-04-06.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  49. ^"Awards: St. Francis College Literary Prize".Shelf Awareness.2011-09-23.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  50. ^Taylor, Charlie (15 June 2011)."Colum McCann wins Impac award".The Irish Times.Retrieved26 February2017.
  51. ^"Awards: Orange; Impac Dublin; Wodehouse Prize".Shelf Awareness.2011-04-13.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  52. ^"Yiyun Li Wins Sunday Times Short Story Award".Department of English.University of California Davis.2015-05-26.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  53. ^"Awards: Sunday Times EFG Short Story; James Beard; Encore".Shelf Awareness.2015-04-28.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  54. ^"PEN America Literary Award Winners Honored".Shelf Awareness.2020-03-04.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  55. ^Reid, Calvin (2020-03-04)."Writers Li, Lok, de Waal Win Big at PEN Lit Awards".Publishers Weekly.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  56. ^Schaub, Michael (2023-04-05)."Yiyun Li Wins the PEN/Faulkner Award for 2023".Kirkus Reviews.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  57. ^"Awards: PEN/Faulkner for Fiction, Anisfield-Wolf, Windham-Campbell Winners".Shelf Awareness.2023-04-05.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  58. ^"2023 Winners".Reference and User Services Association(RUSA).2022-10-03.Retrieved2023-04-06.
  59. ^Fifer, Elizabeth (November 2023)."Wednesday's Child: Stories by Yiyun Li (review)".World Literature Today.97(6): 57–57.doi:10.1353/wlt.2023.a910269.ISSN1945-8134.
  60. ^Li, Yiyun (October 2024)."The Seventy Percent".Harper's Magazine.
[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related toYiyun Li.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yiyun_Li&oldid=1263123109"