Literary Birthday – 12 August – Gish Jen

Happy Birthday, Gish Jen, born on 12 August 1955.

Gish Jen Quotes

1. Whatever I do in life, I’m almost always aware that there’s another way to do it. (Psychology Today)
2. When I think about why I would be a writer, why I should continue to be a writer, it seems to me one of the few things you can do where you’re never bored.
3. It’s human to hear stories and to know how people live and to imagine how that is for them. It’s very interdependent! (The Rumpus)
4. I like to listen. I’m much more interested in listening than in speaking, for sure. (The Rumpus)
5. I think that there is a bias in the current literary climate, which is not only very Western but very male. (The Rumpus)
6. There is, for example, a kind of novel that focuses on one decision or one moment on which a life hinges. There is a focus on character, and a belief that character is fate. And many novels, too, are quite linear, as if the writer believes that life is like dominos—that one thing leads to another in a cause-and-effect way, and that life is progressive rather than, say, cyclical. (Psychology Today)
7. I’m happy to have written Tiger Writing, not only for myself but for others. So many people have come up to me and told me how liberating it was for them to read. Many non-writers have said this, but of course many, many writers, too. Somebody told them it wasn’t okay to have more than one protagonist or that they needed to write in a more linear way, and even if they accepted that advice and felt they profited from it, they never understood why exactly they were told that. (Psychology Today)

Gish Jen is an award-winning Chinese American writer and speaker. She writes literary fiction and contemporary fiction about the experiences of Chinese Americans. Her work often explores immigration, cultural identity, family, and the relationships between generations. Jen’s writing has appeared in The Best American Short Stories five times, including in The Best American Short Stories of the Century. She is a fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has also received NEA, Guggenheim, and Radcliffe fellowships, a Lannan Literary Award, and a five-year Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award. Jen has taught at Harvard University, NYU Shanghai, and other universities. Bad Bad Girl is her sixth novel. Her other books include two short story collections and two works of nonfiction. Jen continues to write and speak about literature, culture, and the experiences of living between different worlds. You can follow her on Instagram.

Source for photograph: Author’s Website

by Amanda Patterson
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