Fae Myenne Ng (born December 2, 1956 in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

) is an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

, and

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

writer. She is a first-generation Chinese American author whose debut novel ''Bone'' told the story of three Chinese American daughters growing up in her real childhood hometown of San Francisco Chinatown. Her work has received support from the American Academy of Arts & Letters' Rome Prize, the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Writers' Award, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Lannan Foundation, and The Radcliffe Institute. She has held residencies at Yaddo, McDowell, and the Djerassi Foundation.

Life

She is the daughter of seamstress and a laborer, who immigrated from Guangzhou, China. She attended the

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 ...

, and received her M.F.A. at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. Ng has supported herself by working as a waitress and at other temporary jobs. She teaches UC Berkeley AAADS 20C. Her short stories have appeared in

The American Voice ''The American Voice'' was an American periodical from Louisville, Kentucky. The journal published poetry, short stories, and essays. Background and content ''The American Voice'' was founded by Frederick Smock and Sallie Bingham while they wer ...

Calyx Calyx or calyce (plural "calyces"), from the Latin ''calix'' which itself comes from the Ancient Greek ''κάλυξ'' (''kálux'') meaning "husk" or "pod", may refer to: Biology * Calyx (anatomy), collective name for several cup-like structures ...

, ''City Lights Review'', ''Crescent Review'', and Harper's. She currently teaches at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

in the English and Asian American Studies departments.

Awards

* nominated and finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, for ''Bone'' * grant by the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

. * 2008

American Book Award The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "the ...

for ''Steer Toward Rock'' * 2009

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

Works

* ''Bone'', Hyperion, 1993 * * ''Orphan Bachelors''. Grove, 2023. ISBN 978-0-8021-6222-9.

Anthologies

* * *

References

Sources

University of Minnesota biography and review

External links

Author Interview regarding ''Bone''
* http://faemyenneng.com/ 1956 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American women novelists American women writers of Chinese descent Columbia University School of the Arts alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni American novelists of Chinese descent American short story writers of Chinese descent American women short story writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers 20th-century short story writers 21st-century American short story writers PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners American Book Award winners {{AsianAmerican-stub