Yiyun Li

Chinese-American writer Yiyun Li grew up in Beijing and then moved to America to study medicine, later receiving an MFA from Iowa Writers' Workshop and an MFA in creative non-fiction writing from the University of Iowa. Her debut collection of short stories, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2005), was released to praise that compared her to the likes of Chekhov, and has been described by The Washington Post as ‘one of those rare short story collections where you find yourself reading one perfectly realized gem after the next’. Her debut novel, dismal yet glorious The Vagrants (2009), was received with similarly favourable enthusiasm and she was awarded the  MacArthur ‘Genius’ Award for her writing in 2010. Li currently lives in California with her husband and sons, and teaches at the University of California.

View Youtube video of Yiyun Li talking about her writing and what inspires her to write