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David Wong Louie

デイヴィッド・ウォン・ルーイ

Deividdo Wongu Rūi

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1954-12-20 （Rockville Centre, New York, U.S.）
Died
2018-09-19 age 63
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Rockville Centre, New York → Iowa City, Iowa → Los Angeles, California

Career

Occupations
novelist, short story writer, professor
Active Years
1981-2018
Affiliations
Vassar College (faculty), University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) (faculty)

Education

East Meadow High School
Period: 〜1973
Year of Graduation: 1973
Country: United States
High school diploma
Vassar College
English
Degree: A.B.
Period: 1973–1977
Year of Graduation: 1977
Country: United States
Bachelor's degree in English
University of Iowa
Creative Writing (M.F.A.)
Degree: M.F.A.
Period: 1979–1981
Year of Graduation: 1981
Country: United States
Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing

Awards

First Fiction Award (Los Angeles Times)
1991
Work: Pangs of Love
Organization: Los Angeles Times
Result: 受賞
John C. Zacharis First Book Award
1991
Work: Pangs of Love
Organization: Ploughshares
Result: 受賞
Shirley Collier Prize
2000
Work: The Barbarians are Coming
Organization: UCLA
Result: 受賞
Lannan Literary Fellowship
2001
Organization: Lannan Foundation
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Pangs of Love

1991 short story collection

A collection of short stories exploring Asian-American identity, family dynamics, and generational conflict. The pieces blend humor and poignancy to examine immigration, belonging, and masculinity.

identityimmigrant experiencefamilygenerational conflict

The Barbarians are Coming

2000 novel

A novel that examines cultural friction and individual struggle, focusing on tensions between cultures and the place of Asian Americans within U.S. society.

cultural conflictassimilation and alienationrelationships

Bibliography

  • Pangs of Love: stories. Knopf. 1991.
  • The Barbarians are Coming. G.P. Putnam's Sons. 2000.
  • Editor (with Marilyn Chin): A Contemporary Asian American Anthology.
  • Short story "Displacement" (included in 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories, 2015)
  • Essay "Eat, Memory" Harper's Magazine, 2017 (included in Best American Essays 2018)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
realist proseblend of humor and pathosdetailed character portrayals
Recurring Motifs
search for identityfood and memoryfamily and generations

Health

  • throat cancer
    約2011–2018
    Required a tracheostomy and gastrostomy (G-tube), which affected speech and oral intake. He wrote about the experience in an essay.

Legacy

David Wong Louie was known for work probing Asian-American identity and generational conflict; he received recognition for both short stories and novels, taught at universities, and contributed to discussions in Asian-American literature.

Academic Societies

  • academic communities related to Asian American literature

Archives

  • UCLA Department of English faculty page (online)

Trivia

  • Known for writing about Chinese-American experience.
  • Pangs of Love won the Los Angeles Times First Fiction Award and the John C. Zacharis First Book Award from Ploughshares.
  • In later life he lived with a tracheostomy and G-tube due to throat cancer and wrote about it in the essay "Eat, Memory".