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Shawna Yang Ryan

ショウナ・ヤン・ライアン

Shawna Yang Ryan

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
Sacramento, California, United States
Nationality
United States
Languages
English, Chinese
Residence History
Sacramento (birthplace) → Taipei (lived for several years) → Honolulu (formerly lived) → Northern California (current)

Career

Occupations
Author, Novelist, Short story writer, Creative writing professor
Active Years
1999-
Affiliations
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Department of English (Creative Writing Program)
Nominations
Goodreads Choice Award (Best Historical Fiction, 2016 nominee)

Education

University of California, Berkeley
Degree: B.A.
Country: United States
Received bachelor's degree
University of California, Davis
Creative Writing
Degree: M.A.
Country: United States
M.A. in Creative Writing; Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan (2002)

Awards

Maurice Prize
2006
Work: Water Ghosts
Organization: UC Davis
Result: Won
Northern California Book Award
2008
Result: Shortlisted
Asian American Literary Award (longlisted)
2010
Work: Water Ghosts
Organization: Asian American Literary Awards
Result: Longlisted
Elliot Cades Emerging Writer Award
2015
Result: Won
Goodreads Choice Award (nominated)
2016
Work: Green Island
Category: Historical Fiction
Organization: Goodreads
Result: Nominated
American Book Award
2017
Work: Green Island
Organization: Before Columbus Foundation
Result: Won
AAAS Book Award
2018
Work: Green Island
Category: Creative Writing
Organization: Association for Asian American Studies
Result: Won

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Water Ghosts

2009 Historical fiction / Literary fiction

Set in a Chinese bachelor town in central California in the 1920s, the novel follows Richard Fong, who has not seen his wife in China for more than a decade. The story explores his life running a casino, his affair, and the tensions between his past in China and present in America. Inspired by the real town of Locke, California.

Immigrant experienceAssimilation and identityFamily and loss

Green Island

2016 Historical fiction / Literary fiction

Beginning with the 1947 February 28 Incident, the novel traces the Tsai family—a father and daughter—through the tumultuous decades of Taiwan under Kuomintang martial law. The book is the product of extensive research in Taiwan, including archival work and interviews.

Memory and historyState violenceFamily bonds and sacrifice

Bibliography

  • Water Ghosts (2009)
  • Green Island (2016)
  • Marginalia (short story, The Asian American Literary Review, 2013)
  • Failure To Commit (short story, Swill Magazine, 2012)
  • The End of February (short story, Asian American Literary Review, 2011)
  • Driving Home (short story, Kartika Review, 2010)
  • The Abandoned Elders (short story, ZYZZYVA, 2006)
  • Rime of The Sweaty Girl (short story, Berkeley Fiction Review, 1999)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Narrative style grounded in detailed historical researchLiterary prose with emphasis on interior characterization
Recurring Motifs
Memory and legacyFamily rupture and renewalImmigration and identity conflict

Legacy

Ryan is known for writing about Taiwanese history and the immigrant experience. Green Island, in particular, has been recognized as a major work addressing the February 28 Incident and earned awards including the American Book Award. She is regarded as an important voice in Asian American and immigrant literature in the U.S.

Quotes

  • I often thought of my research as similar to unraveling a sweater — I’d tug at one thread, and a whole sleeve would come undone. One interviewee would introduce me to another, who’d introduce me to another, and so on.
    Source: The New York Times (Q&A, 2016) (2016)

Trivia

  • Was a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan in 2002.
  • Of mixed (Hapa) heritage: mother from Taiwan, father of European/American background.
  • Water Ghosts was first published in 2007 as Locke 1928 by a small press before being republished by Penguin.