Yiyun Li (b.1972) is a Chinese-American writer of short stories and novels. Her stories and essays have been published in such publications as The New Yorker and The Paris Review.
Born and raised in Beijing, Li earned a bachelor’s from Peking University in 1996, and a master’s in immunology at The University of Iowa. In 2005, she earned an MFA degree in creative nonfiction and fiction from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa.
Li wrote The Vagrants (2009; Guardian First Book Award) based on actual events in China in 1979 that eventually led to the fateful Tiananmen Square rebellion. Two stories from her début short story collection, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2005,) were adapted into 2007 films by Wayne Wang: The Princess of Nebraska and the title story, which Yiyun adapted herself.
Li also wrote Kinder than Solitude (2014,) Where Reasons End (2019,) and Must I Go (2020.) Her memoirs are Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life (2017.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Yiyun Li
Much of what one does–to avoid suffering, to seek happiness, to stay healthy–is to keep a safe space for one’s private language.
—Yiyun Li
But loneliness is as delusive a belief in the pertinence of the world as is love: in choosing to feel lonely, as in choosing to love, one carves a space next to oneself to be filled by others—a friend, a lover, a toy poodle, a violinist on the radio.
—Yiyun Li
If your dream is big enough, the facts don’t count.
—Yiyun Li
Somebody saw something in you once – and that is partly why you’re where you are today. Find a way to thank them.
—Yiyun Li
Topics: Thankfulness
A real dreamer must have a mutual trust with time.
—Yiyun Li
Life can be reset, it seems to say; time can be separated. But that logic appears to me as unlikely as traveling to another place to become a different person. Altered sceneries are at best distractions, or else new settings for old habits. What one carries from one point to another, geographically or temporally, is one’s self. Even the most inconsistent person is consistently himself.
—Yiyun Li
Every place is a good place, only time goes wrong.
—Yiyun Li
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