Biography highlights
- Born November 4, 1972, in Beijing, China; moved to the United States in 1996 to pursue studies in immunology before committing to writing as a full-time career.
- Writes primarily in English; notable works include A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2005), The Vagrants (2009), Where Reasons End (2019), The Book of Goose (2022), Wednesday's Child (2023).
- Recent memoir Things in Nature Merely Grow (2025) has drawn wide critical attention and earned major accolades.
- Honors include the MacArthur Fellowship (2010), Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction (2020), PEN/Jean Stein Book Award (2020) for Where Reasons End, and the PEN/Faulkner Award for The Book of Goose (2023).
- Royal Society of Literature International Writer (2023) and elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2022).
- 2025 National Book Award finalist for Things in Nature Merely Grow; 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction winner for the same memoir.
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