Yiyun Li

Yiyun Li was born in Beijing and with her parents and one sister, she lived in an apartment complex built as housing for employees of the Department of Nuclear Industry, where her father worked as a physicist. Li completed one year of service in the Chinese army before going to college. After receiving her bachelor of science from Peking University, in 1996 she moved to the United States to study immunology at the University of Iowa. After taking a writing course as a way to improve her English, she found herself writing fiction. Li decided to enter the Iowa Writers' Workshop after receiving her master of science in 2000. She earned her master of fine arts in 2005 with a focus on fiction and creative nonfiction.