Laurence Yep
Laurence Yep
Laurence Michael Yepis a prolific Chinese-American writer, best known for children's books. In 2005, he received the biennial Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for his career contribution to American children's literature...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionChildren's Author
Date of Birth14 June 1948
CountryUnited States of America
sometimes easier
Sometimes it's easier to be as bad as they expect you to be.
allowed china chinese deal experience folklore found freedom good great horror local mixture northern southern strong women
The southern Chinese are a mixture of the Han, or northern Chinese, and the local tribes, some of which allowed women a great deal of freedom - much to the horror of the Chinese who were good Confucians. As a result, the folklore from southern China has strong females; and I found that the folktales mirrored my own experience.
born family francisco ohio raised san son virginia west
My mother was actually born in Ohio but raised in West Virginia where her family had a laundry. She has a West Virginian accent. My father was born in China, but he's the son of an American citizen. My paternal grandfather was born in San Francisco in 1867.
asked aunts chinese head ran southern though women
My grandmother, my mother and my aunts and their friends were all of southern Chinese ancestry, and they were all strong figures. Though if you asked them who was the head of their families, they would have said their husbands; and yet it was the women who ran everything.
cities four lived moved seven southern thousand trace typical villages
My ancestors come from a part of southern China where most villages can trace their roots back at least a thousand years or even more. However, as a typical American, I have lived in four cities and moved at least seven times.
attended cruz doctorate graduated received santa state university william wrote york
In 1966, I attended Marquette University and graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1970. I received my doctorate in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where I wrote my dissertation on William Faulkner's early novels.
became business equally rush surprised
I was surprised at how cosmopolitan the Gold Rush was: prospectors were of all races, genders, and countries. I was equally surprised at how fast gold prospecting became big business.
bilingual born chinatown confront elementary grew high middle san school until
I was born in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1948 but grew up in a black neighborhood. During elementary and middle school, I commuted to a bilingual school in Chinatown. So I did not confront white American culture until high school.
accepted age bit bug later magazine national school seventeen teacher
I started writing at the age of seventeen because I had a teacher in high school who said that we had to get something accepted by a national magazine to get an A. The teacher later withdrew that threat, but the writing bug bit me.
brings children good ordinary
I get the ideas from everything. Children sometimes think you have to have special experiences to write, but good writing brings out what's special in ordinary things.
continued fiction five later paid published science word
At 18, my first short story was published - I was paid a penny a word by a science fiction magazine. I continued to write, and five years later I published my first novel, 'Sweetwater.'
began discovered high science
While I was in high school, I discovered and began writing science fiction.
horrible
When something horrible is done to you, the natural impulse is to strike back.
The ku-magic is a very ancient magic. It predates Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism.