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| Illustration by Adrian Tomine |
Fiction
Gold Boy, Emerald Girl
He was raised by his mother alone, as she was by her father. She wondered if his mother, who had set up their date, had told him about that.
Tuesday, September 1, 2026
Loss, Loneliness, and Love in Yiyun Li’s Latest Collection
Loss, Loneliness, and Love in Yiyun Li’s Latest Collection
'Gold Boy, Emerald Girl' by Yiyun Li
By Melissa C. Wong
“Welcome to the land of the unfortunate and the deserted,” intones a character in the newest collection of fiction from rising literary star Yiyun Li. This melancholy statement serves as an apt introduction to the nine perfectly-realized worlds in “Gold Boy, Emerald Girl.” Alongside her tales of the miserable and despondent, however, Li’s enchanting prose also nurtures a distinctly more uplifting message. Ultimately, “Gold Boy, Emerald Girl” thrives on a constantly pulsing, energetic undercurrent: a triumphant depiction of the power of interpersonal connection.
Wednesday’s Child by Yiyun Li review – motherhood as loss
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| Yuyin Li |
Review
Wednesday’s Child by Yiyun Li review – motherhood as loss
These bruising, beautiful short stories explore the pain of lost children, along with parenthood’s more usual sacrifices – youth, romantic love and a sense of self
Gold Boy, Emerald Girl by Yiyun Li
Sarah Crown
Saturday 30 September 2023
With the title of her new short story collection, the first since 2010’s Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, Yiyun Li offers us a typically finespun hint at what we’re in for. The stories in Wednesday’s Child take as their subject the state of motherhood: its weight and its potency; the questions it raises, and the sacrifices and sublimations it exacts.
An Interview with Yiyun Li
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| Yiyun Li |
An Interview with Yiyun Li
Yiyun Li was born in China in 1972. Her father was a physicist, her mother a school teacher, and she herself was something of a math whiz as a kid. She studied immunology at university in Beijing and always planned to go the United States to further her education. When she was twenty-three, she fulfilled that dream and went to graduate school in Iowa. Her first year there, she was lonely. Her boyfriend, soon to be her husband, was still in China, so she enrolled in a community writing course, figuring she’d improve her English. Her first story was highly praised by her teacher. Yiyun Li was amazed; she’d never written fiction before, in English or Chinese. She continued in science and got a graduate degree before enrolling in the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she received two more M.A.’s—in fiction and creative non-fiction.
Biographies / Yiyun Li
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| Yiyun Li |
Yiyun Li Biography
Yiyun Li was born in 1972 in Beijing. Along 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. In 1991 Li reported to Xinyang to complete 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. However, after taking a writing course as a way to improve her English, she found herself writing fiction. She decided to change the focus of her studies, entering the famed 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.
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