Yiyun Li

Yiyun Li is a highly acclaimed Chinese-American author, known for her works in literature and fiction, as well as nonfiction novels written in the English language. She was born in Beijing, China, on November 4, 1972, and spent her childhood there, where her mother worked as a teacher and her father was a nuclear physicist. Li's father's profession made it easier for her to move to the United States, which she did after serving in the military and earning her B.S. degree from Peking University in 1996. She then went on to pursue a master's degree at The Iowa University, where she earned her MS degree in immunology in 2000. Li's passion for writing led her to join the Writers' Workshop and The Nonfiction Writing Program at the Iowa University for an MFA degree in fiction and creative nonfiction.

Li has received numerous distinctions and awards for her novels and short stories. She is the author of seven books, including "Where Reasons End," which received the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award; the essay collection "Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life"; and the novels "The Vagrants" and "Must I Go." Li's work has been recognized with a MacArthur Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, and Windham-Campbell Prize, among other honors. In addition to her writing, Li is also the editor of a literary magazine called A Public Space based in Brooklyn. She currently teaches at Princeton University.