Julie Yip-Williams

Julie Yip-Williams (January 6, 1976 – March 19, 2018) was an American lawyer and writer, born Diep Ly Thanh in Vietnam.

Julie Yip-Williams
Julie Yip-Williams, from a 2013 video.
Born
Diep Ly Thanh

(1976-01-06)January 6, 1976
Tam Kỳ, South Vietnam
DiedMarch 19, 2018(2018-03-19) (aged 42)
Brooklyn, New York
OccupationLawyer, writer

Early life and education

Diep Ly Thanh was born in Tam Kỳ, South Vietnam, the daughter of Diep The Phu (Peter Yip) and Lam Que Anh (Ann Yip). She was blind from congenital cataracts, and a grandmother pressured her parents to find an herbalist to end the baby's life.[1] In 1979, she escaped Vietnam with dozens of family members, in a fishing boat. They landed in Hong Kong as refugees, and moved to California by the end of 1979. She was raised in Monterey Park, California. Her vision was improved with surgery in Los Angeles, but she remained legally blind.[2]

Yip earned a bachelor's degree from Williams College in Massachusetts, and a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School.[2]

Career

Yip worked in corporate law in New York City from 2002.[2] In 2013, after being diagnosed with colon cancer, Yip-Williams started a blog, to share her experience with the disease and treatment, and to leave a record of herself for her young daughters. In her last months, she also made recordings for a podcast produced by Eleanor Kagan, titled Julie.[3][4]

The blog and other writing by Yip-Williams, including a manuscript about her childhood, were compiled into a memoir, The Unwinding of the Miracle: A Memoir of Life, Death, and Everything That Comes After (2019), edited by her friend Mark Warren[5] and published posthumously.[6] The book was frequently compared to Paul Kalanithi's memoir When Breath Becomes Air (2016), and Nina Riggs' The Bright Hour (2017), which both had similar themes.[7][8] It was included in The New York Times' "100 Notable Books of 2019" annual feature.[9]

Personal life

Julie Yip married fellow lawyer Joshua Williams. They had two daughters.[1] Yip-Williams died from colon cancer in 2018, aged 42, at her home in Brooklyn.[2]

References
  1. Kelly, Hillary (2019-02-05). "How It Feels to Publish Your Wife's Memoir About Dying". Vulture. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  2. Sandomir, Richard (2018-03-22). "Julie Yip-Williams, Writer of Candid Blog on Cancer, Dies at 42". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  3. Kagan, Eleanor (February 7, 2019). "A Mother Documents Her Final Months Of Life In 'Julie' Podcast". All Things Considered. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  4. Divola, Barry (2020-01-10). "Terminally ill mother-of-two shares journey to the end with podcaster". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  5. "How Random House's Mark Warren Helped Julie Yip-Williams with Her Remarkable Memoir". Penguin Random House. February 11, 2019. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  6. Gottlieb, Lori (2019-02-06). "A Dying Young Woman Reminds Us How to Live". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  7. Marsh, Henry (2019-02-08). "The author Yip-Williams leaves posthumous advice". The Mercury News. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  8. "Try these alternatives to high-demand titles". Arizona Daily Star. 2019-03-24. pp. E3. Retrieved 2020-07-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "100 Notable Books of 2019". The New York Times. December 8, 2019. p. 28 – via ProQuest.
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