Ling Ma is a Chinese American novelist and assistant professor of practice in the Arts at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

. Her first book, ''

Severance Severance may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Severance'' (film), a 2006 British horror film * ''Severance'' (novel), a 2018 novel by Ling Ma *''Severance'', a 2006 short-story collection by Robert Olen Butler * ''Severance'' (TV series), a ...

'', won a 2018

Kirkus Prize The Kirkus Prize is an American literary award conferred by the book review magazine ''Kirkus Reviews''. Established in 2014, the Kirkus Prize bestows annually. Three authors are awarded each, divided into three categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, ...

and was listed as a ''New York Times'' Notable Book of 2018 and shortlisted for the 2019 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. Her second book, '' Bliss Montage'', won

The Story Prize The Story Prize is an annual book award established in 2004 that honors the author of an outstanding collection of short fiction with a $20,000 cash award. Each of two runners-up receives $5,000. Eligible books must be written in English and first p ...

Early life

Ma was born in Sanming, Fujian, China, initially an only child because of China's "

one-child policy The term one-child policy () refers to a population planning initiative in China implemented between 1980 and 2015 to curb the country's population growth by restricting many families to a single child. That initiative was part of a much bro ...

." She grew up in Utah, Nebraska, and Kansas. She has an AB from the

and received an MFA from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

Career

Ma's debut novel, ''Severance,'' is described as "a biting indictment of

late-stage capitalism Late capitalism, late-stage capitalism, or end-stage capitalism is a term first used in print by German economist Werner Sombart around the turn of the 20th century. In the late 2010s, the term began to be used in the United States and Canada to ...

and a chilling vision of what comes after, but that doesn’t mean it’s a Marxist screed or a dry Hobbesian thought experiment." ''Severance'' is a novel that is partially post-apocalyptic horror, and partially office satire. It follows the novel's narrator in the aftermath of the outbreak of a deadly fever that has killed almost everyone in the US. An earlier chapter from the book won a 2015 Disquiet Literary Prize, the Graywolf Prize. Ma began the novel while working as a fact checker for ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

'', a job she held from 2009 to 2012. It began as a short story, written in her office during her last few months there; after her layoff, it became a novel which she wrote while living on severance pay. She took four years to write it, and finished the novel at Cornell as part of the work in her MFA program. Ma said she "felt pressured to write a traditional

immigration novel An American immigrant novel is a genre of American novel which explores the process of assimilation and the relationship of American immigrants toward American identity and ideas. The novels often show and explore generational differences in immigra ...

" while in the MFA program at Cornell, but instead decided to write about otherness and alienation via the trope of zombie apocalypse. Ma has also published short stories in ''

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

'', ''

'', and the ''

Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded by a ...

''. Ma's short story "Peking Duck" appears in the 2022 ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' Fiction Issue. Her first collection of short stories, ''Bliss Montage'', was published in September 2022. The collection was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction.

Works

* *

References

External links

Personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ma, Ling Living people 21st-century American novelists American women novelists American writers of Chinese descent Cornell University alumni People from Sanming Chinese emigrants to the United States University of Chicago alumni University of Chicago faculty Writers from Fujian American women short story writers 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American women writers Kirkus Prize winners 1983 births American women academics