Yiyun Li

Yiyun Li
File:LI-2.JPG
Native name	李翊雲
Born	(1972-11-04) November 4, 1972
Occupation	University of California, Davis
Alma mater	Peking University, The University of Iowa,
Notable awards	MacArthur Fellow

Yiyun Li (李翊雲) (born November 4, 1972) is a Chinese American writer. Her debut short story collection A Thousand Years of Good Prayers won the 2005 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and her second collection Gold Boy, Emerald Girl was shortlisted for the same award. Her debut novel The Vagrants was shortlisted for the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. In 2015, Yiyun Li's A Sheltered Woman won the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award.

She was named a 2010 MacArthur Fellow. She is an editor of Brooklyn-based literary magazine, A Public Space.

Life

Yiyun Li grew up in Beijing, China, and moved to the United States after earning a B.S. at Peking University in 1996. She earned an MS in immunology at The University of Iowa, an MFA in creative nonfiction from the Nonfiction Writing Program at The University of Iowa, and an MFA in fiction from Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her stories and essays have been published in The New Yorker, 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.

Family

She lives in Oakland, California, with her husband and their two sons, and teaches at University of California, Davis.

Recognition

• Lannan Foundation residency in Marfa, Texas
• 2005 - Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award for A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
• 2006 - PEN/Hemingway Award for A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
• 2006 - Guardian First Book Award for A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
• 2006 - Whiting Award
• California Book Award first fiction award for A Thousand Years of Good Prayers'
• 2007 - Granta's 21 Best of Young American Novelists
• California Book Award for The Vagrants
• 2010 - The New Yorker's 20 under 40
• 2010 - MacArthur Foundation fellow
• 2010 - Story Prize finalist for Gold Boy, Emerald Girl
• 2011 - International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award shortlist for The Vagrants
• 2011 - Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award shortlist for Gold Boy, Emerald Girl.
• 2014 - The American Academy of Arts and Letters's Benjamin H. Danks Award
• 2015 - Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award winner for "A Sheltered Woman".

Reviews

Stephanie Merritt of The Observer wrote,

Yiyun Li's 2005 debut story collection A Thousand Years of Good Prayers earned her comparisons with Chekhov and Alice Munro. Her first novel, The Vagrants, draws heavily on the art of the short story as it follows a disparate group of citizens of the industrial town of Muddy River over three months in 1979.

Ian Thomson of The Independent wrote,

With its controlled understatement and scrupulous and unsparing lucidity, The Vagrants is a work of great moral poise and dignity. These days, few writers can be said to possess gravitas; yet Yiyun Li exudes a seriousness that would be remarkable in one twice her age. As a chronicle of political betrayal under a modern dictatorship, The Vagrants is a minor classic; I have not read such a compelling work in years.

Bibliography

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Short fiction

Short stories

Title	Year	First published	Reprinted/collected
The Proprietress	2005		?
House Fire	2007		?
Prison	2006
A Man Like Him	2008
A Small Sacrifice	2010		?

External links

• Yiyun Li's Official Homepage
• UC Davis homepage
• Profile at The Whiting Foundation
• "The Rumpus Interview with Yiyun Li", January 14th, 2009
• January 2009 interview with Yiyun Li
• "Executioner Songs", The Wall Street Journal, JANUARY 30, 2009
• "Interviews: Yiyun Li", Identity Theory
• Articles by Yuyun Li on her UK publisher's blog, 5th Estate
• Yiyun Li speaks about Gold Boy, Emerald Girl on KRUI's The Lit Show
• Video: The Story Prize reading with Anthony Doerr and Suzanne Rivecca. March 2, 2011.