Creative Writing Faculty

Yiyun Li

Yiyun Li headshot

Photo by ©Basso CANNARSA / Opale

About

Yiyun Li is the author of eleven books, including Wednesday's Child, The Book of Goose, Where Reasons End, Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life, and Tolstoy Together, 85 Days of War and Peace with Yiyun Li. Her work has been translated into more than twenty languages. Li’s honors and awards include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a Windham Campbell Prize, a 2023 International Writer Award from the Royal Society of Literature, the 2021 Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Benjamin H. Dank Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the PEN/Jean Stein Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Guardian First Book Award, the Asian American Literary Award for fiction, and others. She is a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, an independent film directed by Wayne Wang and adapted by Li from her short story, was the winner of Golden Shell for best film, 55th San Sebastian International Film Festival.

 

NEWS + LINKS

Creative Writing: Life, By the Book” | Princeton Alumni Weekly, June 6, 2018

“When We Were Happy We Had Other Names,” published in The New Yorker, October 2018. Read the story or listen to Li read aloud online

Yiyun Li: What I Think” | Princeton University, Dec. 10, 2018

“All Will Be Well,” published in The New Yorker, March 2019. Read the story or listen to Li read aloud online

Where Reasons End listed among Lit Hub’s  “26 Books from the Last Decade that More People Should Read” | Literary Hub, Dec. 3, 2019

Where Reasons End included on several top books of 2019 lists:

“Yiyun Li and Leslie Jamison Among PEN Award Nominees” | The New York Times, Jan. 28, 2020

2020 Pen/Jean Stein Book Award Finalists | Pen America, Jan. 28, 2020

“PEN/Faulkner Foundation Announces longlist for 2020 Award for Fiction” — includes Where Reasons End, by Yiyun Li | Literary Hub, Feb. 7, 2020

Where Reasons End — Winner of 2020 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award — Pen America, March 2, 2020

Yiyun Li Receives a 2020 Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction | Windham Campbell Prizes, March 19, 2020

Let Mothers Doubt” | Esquire UK, July 2020

Under the Magnolia” | The Decameron Project — The New York Times Magazine, July 2020

Yiyun Li’s review of Carmen Boullosa’s The Book of AnnaThe New York Review of Books, Nov. 5, 2020

The Ability to Cry” | The New Yorker, Nov. 16, 2020

The Reason Why” | The Yale Review, Windham Campbell Prizes Issue, Dec. 2020

Tolstoy Together: Read War and Peace with Yiyun Li at A Public Space

Tolstoy Together: 85 Days of War and Peace with Yiyun Li, published in April 2021

Yiyun Li receives a 2021 Literature Award | American Academy of Arts and Letters, March 29, 2021

Yiyun Li collaborates with BodyVox Dance Company — Pearl Dive Project: Episode 4; June 17, 2021

Yiyun Li elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences — April 28, 2022

Yiyun Li Wins the 2022 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story — May 16, 2022

How Yiyun Li Became a Beacon for Readers in Mourning” | New York Times, September 14, 2022

The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li – clever, witty novel of friendship” | The Guardian, September 2022

The Book of Goose makes the longlist for 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction | American Library Association, October 2022

The Book of Goose longlisted for 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction | PEN/Faulkner, February 2023

The Book of Goose included on several top books of 2022 lists:

Story Collection: Wednesday’s Child | Published by FSG in the US; 4th Estate/Harper Collins in the UK, September 2023

American Academy of Arts and Letters announces Yiyun Li among 2023 Newly Elected Members | American Academy of Arts and Letters, Feb. 21, 2023

The Book of Goose named a finalist for the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction | PEN/Faulkner news, March 7, 2023

Yiyun Li’s The Book of Goose wins 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction | PEN/Faulkner, April 4, 2023

Yiyun Li receives Behrman Award for the humanities | Princeton University News, May 8, 2023

Essay: Yiyun Li, “How to Raise a ‘Warrior Queen'” | New York Times, October 2023

Yiyun Li Named a Royal Society of Literature International Writer | November 2023

Wednesday’s Child: Stories included on several best books of 2023 lists:

Wednesday’s Child named finalist for 2024 Story Prize | LitHub, January 9, 2024

Yiyun Li among L.A. Times Book Prize finalists | Los Angeles Times, February 21, 2024

 

 

Campus Address

Program in Creative Writing
New South Building, Floor 6
Office 618