Weike Wang is a

Chinese-American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from m ...

author of the novel ''

Chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

'', which won the 2018

PEN/Hemingway Award The PEN/Hemingway Award is awarded annually to a full-length novel or book of short stories by an American author who has not previously published a full-length book of fiction. The award is named after Ernest Hemingway and funded by the Hemingway ...

. Her fiction has been published in ''

Glimmer Train ''Glimmer Train'' was an American short story literary journal. It was published quarterly, accepting works primarily from emerging writers. Stories published in ''Glimmer Train'' were listed in ''The Best American Short Stories'', as well as appe ...

'', the '' Alaska Quarterly Review'', ''

Ploughshares ''Ploughshares'' is an American literary journal established in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, ''Ploughshares'' has been based at Emerson College in Boston. ...

'', ''

Kenyon Review ''The Kenyon Review'' is a literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, US, home of Kenyon College. ''The Review'' was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959. ...

'', ''

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 ...

'', and ''Redivider''.

Life

Wang was born in Nanjing, China. Her family emigrated when she was five years old. She lived in Australia and Canada before arriving in the United States with her family at the age eleven. Wang once described the community in which she lived as "a very rural town, and everyone was white. I was the only Asian person in my school." After high school, Wang attended

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 higher le ...

, where she studied chemistry for her undergraduate degree and public health for her doctorate. While she was pre-med as an undergraduate, she reconsidered going to medical school. While completing her doctorate, she also attended

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

, where she received her MFA.

Career

In 2017, Wang was selected by author

Sherman Alexie Sherman Joseph Alexie Jr. (born October 7, 1966) is a Spokane- Coeur d'Alene-Native American novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and filmmaker. His writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from se ...

for the National Book Foundation's annual 5 under 35 list. In its citation, the National Book Foundation called Wang ''"''a brilliant new literary voice that astutely juxtaposes the elegance of science, the anxieties of finding a place in the world, and the sacrifices made for love and family." In 2018, she received a Whiting Award for Fiction, one of ten awarded each year to emerging writers. Her 2018 short story "Omakase" was selected for inclusion in the ''

Best American Short Stories The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of ''The Best American Series'' published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in con ...

2019'' anthology by editors

Anthony Doerr Anthony Doerr (born October 27, 1973) is an American author of novels and short stories. He gained widespread recognition for his 2014 novel ''All the Light We Cannot See'', which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Early life and education Rais ...

and Heidi Pitlor, and in the 2019 '' O. Henry Prize Anthology'' by prize jurors

Lynn Freed Lynn Freed is a writer known for her work as a novelist, essayist, and writer of short stories. Life Lynn Freed was born and grew up in Durban, South Africa. She came to New York City as a graduate student, receiving her M.A. and Ph.D. in Eng ...

Elizabeth Strout Elizabeth Strout (born January 6, 1956) is an American novelist and author. She is widely known for her works in literary fiction and her descriptive characterization. She was born and raised in Portland, Maine, and her experiences in her youth s ...

, and

Lara Vapnyar Lara Vapnyar (born 1975) is a Russian-American writer currently living in the United States. She studied comparative literature at CUNY and worked with André Aciman and Louis Menand. Vapnyar has published four novels and two collections of shor ...

Writing style

Critics have often noted that Wang rarely names her main characters in her major works. The Chinese American protagonist of ''

'' remains nameless throughout the novel, as do her parents and everyone except for the heroine's boyfriend, Eric. Wang continued her trend of nameless characters in her short story "Omakase," which was published in ''The New Yorker'' in 2018. "I am terrible at naming characters," Wang told ''The New Yorker'' in 2018, adding that she also considers context and her characters lives when she decides to leave them nameless.

Bibliography

Novels

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Short stories

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Weike Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women writers 21st-century Chinese women writers 21st-century Chinese writers American writers of Chinese descent Boston University alumni Chinese emigrants to the United States Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health alumni The New Yorker people Writers from Nanjing O. Henry Award winners