Weike Wang

Weike Wang is a Chinese-American author. She is the author of the novel Chemistry,[1] which won the 2018 PEN/Hemingway Award.

For the Chinese translator, see Wang Weike.

Weike Wang
Born
Nanjing, China
NationalityChinese American
Alma materHarvard University (B.A., S.M., S.D.) Boston University (M.F.A.)
OccupationWriter
Notable work
Chemistry
AwardsPEN/Hemingway Award, Whiting Award
Websitewww.weikewangwrites.com

Her fiction has been published in Glimmer Train, the Alaska Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, The New Yorker, and Redivider.[2]

Life

Wang was born in Nanjing, China, but she and her family moved when she was 5 years old. She lived in Australia, Canada, and the United States before high school, arriving in the United States with her family at the age of 11.[3][4][5] Wang once described a community she grew up in as "a very rural town, and everyone was white. I was the only Asian person in my school."[6]

After high school, Wang attended Harvard University, where she studied chemistry for her undergraduate degree and public health for her doctorate. While she was pre-med as an undergrad, she began reconsidering going to medical school. While finishing her doctorate, she also attended Boston University, where she received her MFA.[7][8]

Career

In 2017, Wang was selected by author Sherman Alexie to be part of the National Book Foundation's annual 5 under 35 list. In its citation, the National Book Award 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."[9] In 2018, she received a Whiting Award for Fiction, one of 10 awarded each year to emerging writers.[10]

Her 2018 short story "Omakase" was selected for inclusion in the Best American Short Stories 2019 anthology by editors Anthony Doerr and Heidi Pitlor[11] and in the 2019 O. Henry Prize Anthology by prize jurors Lynn Freed, Elizabeth Strout, and Lara Vapnyar.[12][13]

Writing Style

Critics have often noted that Wang rarely names her main characters in her major works.[14] The Chinese American protagonist of Chemistry remains nameless throughout the novel, as do her parents and everyone except for the heroine's boyfriend Eric.[15] Wang continued her trend of nameless characters in her short story Omakase, which was published in The New Yorker in 2018.[16] "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.[17]

Bibliography
  • Chemistry. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 2017.
  • "Omakase". The New Yorker. June 18, 2018.
  • "Hair". Boulevard. October 28, 2018.
  • "The Trip". The New Yorker. 95 (36): 62–67. November 18, 2019.
  • "The Poster". Gulf Coast. Spring 2020.
  • "Flight Home". The New Yorker. April 6, 2020.

References
  1. Hu, Jane (November 15, 2017). "The "Inscrutable" Voices of Asian-Anglophone Fiction". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
  2. "Weike Wang". www.glimmertrain.com. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  3. "Weike Wang". www.glimmertrain.com. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  4. "'Chemistry' Is an Anti-Coming-of-Age Story". The New York Times. May 25, 2017. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
  5. "Weike Wang combines humor, science, and depression in debut novel 'Chemistry'". NBC News. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
  6. "Science, Fiction: An Interview with Weike Wang". Asian American Writers' Workshop. January 31, 2018. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  7. "Weike Wang's 'Chemistry' Wins $25,000 PEN/Hemingway Award – PEN America". PEN America. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
  8. "Debut Author Weike Wang Wins $25,000 PEN/Hemingway Award for "Elliptical Prose" in Chemistry – PEN America". PEN America. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
  9. "Weike Wang". National Book Foundation. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  10. Woolhouse, Megan. "Weike Wang Wins Whiting Award". Bostonia. Boston University. Retrieved May 19, 2020.
  11. Doerr, Anthony; Pitlor, Heidi (October 1, 2019). The Best American Short Stories 2019. HMH Books. ISBN 9781328484246.
  12. "Announcing the 100th Annual O. Henry Prize". LitHub. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
  13. Furman, Laura; Freed, Lynn; Strout, Elizabeth; Vapnyar, Lara (September 10, 2019). The O. Henry Prize Stories 100th Anniversary Edition (2019). Anchor. ISBN 9780525565536.
  14. "'Chemistry: A Novel' Is About A Scientist Whose Plans Get Reconstituted". NPR.org. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  15. Hu, Jane (November 15, 2017). "The "Inscrutable" Voices of Asian-Anglophone Fiction". ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  16. Wang, Weike (June 11, 2018). ""Omakase"". ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  17. Treisman, Deborah (June 11, 2018). "Weike Wang on the Privilege of Not Having to Think About Race". ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved May 5, 2019.


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