Abigail Hing Wen (邢立美; born 1977) is an American writer, film producer, lawyer, and speaker. Her debut

young adult A young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages of human development significantly influencing the definition of ...

novel, Loveboat, Taipei, was purchased in a multi-house auction by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...

in a two-book deal, along with ''Loveboat Reunion''. It debuted on the ''New York Times'' Bestseller List where it remained for multiple weeks and has been adapted for film by ACE Entertainment. ''Loveboat, Taipei'' follows the journey of an Asian American teen whose parents send her from Ohio to Taipei to study Mandarin for the summer at a program nicknamed Loveboat. It is a coming-of-age story exploring love, family, multifaceted identity and intersectionality. Wen's companion novel, ''Loveboat Reunion'', follows two of the main characters from ''Loveboat, Taipei'' as they reconnect and write their own futures on a wild, unexpected reunion. The novel draws inspiration from Wen's work in Silicon Valley, with a girl trying to navigate her fashion interests and interests in AI.

Early life

Abigail Hing Wen was born Abigail Geraldine Lim Hing in

Wheeling, West Virginia Wheeling is a city in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Located almost entirely in Ohio County, of which it is the county seat, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and also contains a tiny portion extending ...

as a daughter of immigrants. Her father, Yung-Luy (Ray) Hing, emigrated from Indonesia at the age of thirteen and attended the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. He is a former chemical engineer and works in US-China business development. Her mother, Barbara Lim Hing, emigrated from the Philippines and served as a school teacher. She grew up in

Solon, Ohio Solon ( ) is a city in southeastern Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. A suburb of Cleveland, it is part of the Cleveland metropolitan area. According to the 2020 census, the population of Solon was 24,262. The city has been recognized by ' ...

Education

Wen attended

Solon High School Solon High School, founded in 1898, is a public high school located in Solon, Ohio, a southeastern suburb of Cleveland in the Northeast Ohio Region, the 15th largest Combined Statistical Area in the United States. It comprises grades 9 through 12, ...

, where she was the

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution. The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA ...

. She was selected as one of 120 U.S. Presidential Scholars, high school seniors invited to Washington DC to meet then President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

. As a Presidential Scholar, she was invited by the Taiwanese government to attend the study tour program at ''Chien Tan'', which eventually formed the setting of her first novel, ''Loveboat, Taipei''. Wen studied at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, earning her B.A. ''magna cum laude'' in government and international relations''.'' She wrote her senior thesis on China under Professor

Roderick MacFarquhar Roderick "Rod" Lemonde MacFarquhar (2 December 1930 – 10 February 2019) was a British China scholar, politician, and journalist. MacFarquhar had a varied career. He was founding editor of ''China Quarterly'' in 1959. He served as a Member of ...

. She served on the student governing board of the

Harvard Institute of Politics The Institute of Politics (IOP) is an institute of Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University that was created to serve as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy, as well as to inspire Harvard undergraduates to consider careers in politi ...

(IOP). Wen earned her JD at

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

and MFA in Writing from

Vermont College of Fine Arts Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) is a private graduate-level art school in Montpelier, Vermont. It offers Master's degrees in low-residency and residential programs. Its faculty includes Pulitzer Prize finalists, National Book Award winners, ...

, studying under

Kathi Appelt Kathi Appelt (born July 6, 1954) is an American author of more than forty books for Children's literature, children and Young adult fiction, young adults. She won the annual PEN Center USA, PEN USA award for Children's Literature recognizing ''T ...

, A.M. Jenkins, and

Martine Leavitt Martine Leavitt is a Canadian American writer of young adult novels and a creative writing instructor. Biography Leavitt was born in 1953 in Canada. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree, first class honours, from the University of Calgary ...

Career

Prior to moving to Silicon Valley, Wen spent ten years in

Washington DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, working on Capitol Hill for the

Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations ...

, as a law clerk to the Honorable Judge

Judith W. Rogers Judith Ann Wilson Rogers (born July 27, 1939) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Education and career Born in New York City, Rogers received an Artium Baccalaureus ...

on the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, and in private practice at the international law firms of Sullivan & Cromwell and

Covington & Burling Covington & Burling LLP is an American multinational law firm. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the firm advises clients on transactional, litigation, regulatory, and public policy matters. In 2021, Vault.com ranked Covington & Burling as ...

Literary career

In 2019, Wen's debut novel, ''Loveboat, Taipei'', sold in a multi-house auction to

, for a two-book deal. It debuted at #9 on the ''New York Times'' Bestseller List where it remained for multiple weeks. ''Loveboat, Taipei'' was published on January 7, 2020, by HarperTeen. The story is inspired by Wen's experience on the

Love Boat ''The Love Boat'' is an American romantic comedy/drama television series that aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986; in addition, four three-hour specials aired in 1986, 1987, and 1990. The series was set on the luxury passenger cruise ship MS ''Pa ...

program. Wen and ''Loveboat, Taipei'' have been featured in NBC Bay Area Show, ''

World Journal ''World Journal'' () is a Pan-Blue Taiwanese broadsheet newspaper published in North America. It is the largest Chinese language newspaper in the United States and one of the largest Chinese language newspapers outside of Greater China, with a ...

', ''the South China Morning Post,

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...

, and

People en Español ''People en Español'' is a Spanish-language American magazine published by Dotdash Meredith that debuted in 1996, originally as the Spanish-language edition of its publication ''People''. As of 2009, it is the Spanish-language magazine with the l ...

. The novel appeared on a number of Most Anticipated lists including ''The Boston Globe''.''Book Riot'', ''

Bustle A bustle is a padded undergarment used to add fullness, or support the drapery, at the back of women's dresses in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles are worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skirt from dragging. ...

'', '' BuzzFeed'', The UK ''Evening Standard'', ''The Nerd Daily'', '' Seventeen'', and ''She Reads.'' ''Loveboat, Taipei'' was selected as a Barnes & Noble Young Adult Book Club Pick and it appeared at number 1 on

's ''25 Best

Audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

s of 2020'' list. In June 2021, Wen was featured in the Forbes AI Ethics series, where she talked about her role in Partnership on AI, as well as her upcoming literary works. Her second novel, ''Loveboat Reunion'', comes out in January 2022, as well as ''The Idiom Algorithm'', a short story she wrote for the Macmillan Serendipity anthology. A third novel, ''Loveboat Forever'', set six years after ''Loveboat, Taipei,'' will be released in late 2023.

Technology

Wen works in venture capital and artificial intelligence in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...

. Wen serves as a board observer for Two Bit Circus, a Los Angeles-based virtual reality entertainment company. She serves as co-chair of the

Partnership on AI Partnership on AI (full name Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society) is a nonprofit coalition committed to the responsible use of artificial intelligence. It researches best practices for artificial intelligence system ...

Expert Working Group for Fairness, Transparency and Accountability. Wen hosts the podcast Intel on AI. Her guests have included founders in the field, such as

Andrew Ng Andrew Yan-Tak Ng (; born 1976) is a British-born American computer scientist and technology entrepreneur focusing on machine learning and AI. Ng was a co-founder and head of Google Brain and was the former Chief Scientist at Baidu, building ...

and

Yann LeCun Yann André LeCun ( , ; originally spelled Le Cun; born 8 July 1960) is a French computer scientist working primarily in the fields of machine learning, computer vision, mobile robotics and computational neuroscience. He is the Silver Professo ...

, as well as Google DeepMind,

US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...

The World Bank The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development G ...

and leading AI faculty at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

, Stanford, and

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

Personal life

Her maternal grandparents are from

Xiamen Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an ...

, China. Her maternal grandfather, Amado Lim, was a self-made businessman and philanthropist who co-founded the Metropolitan Medical Center in

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

and served as its first chairman. She has a younger brother and sister who are twins.

Bibliography

Novels

* '' Loveboat, Taipei''. HarperCollins (2020) * '' Loveboat Reunion''. HarperCollins (2022) * ''Loveboat Forever'', HarperCollins (2023)

Short stories

* ''The Idiom Algorithm''. Macmillan ''Serendipity'' anthology (2022)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wen, Abigail Hing 1977 births 21st-century American women writers Columbia Law School alumni Harvard College alumni Living people Vermont College of Fine Arts alumni Writers from Wheeling, West Virginia Lawyers from Wheeling, West Virginia American writers of Filipino descent American writers of Chinese descent American people of Indonesian descent Novelists from West Virginia