ABOUT
Born in Nanjing, China, Yiru Zhang writes in both Chinese and English.
In English, she has works published or forthcoming in The Southern Review, The Georgia Review, swamp pink, Gulf Coast, North American Review, Boston Review, Pinch, Nimrod, The Florida Review, DIAGRAM, Columbia Journal, Reed Magazine, Tahoma Literary Review, Gordon Square Review, and other venues.
She is a finalist for the National Magazine Awards in Fiction for her story “Shipwreck,” published in the Georgia Review. She is also the winner of the Aura Estrada Short Story Contest and the Columbia Journal Winter Contest, and her stories have been recognized by the John Steinbeck Award for Fiction, the Story Foundation Prize, the Pushcart Prize, The Halifax Fiction Prize, the Disquiet International Literary Prize, the Rick DeMarinis Short Story Contest, Best of the Net, Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction, American Short(er) Fiction Prize, A Public Space Fellowship, Witness Award, New Millennium Writing Award, among others.
In her native Chinese, she has works published in Taiwan and Hong Kong Literature, Fiction World, Youth, and elsewhere. She is also the recipient of Literary Journal‘s New Critism Award.
She works as a literary reporter, and translates English short stories into Chinese as well.
AWARDS
National Magazine Awards in Fiction, Finalist, 2024 (to the Georgia Review, for three writers’ stories, including “Shipwreck”)
Aura Estrada Short Story Contest, Winner, 2021
Columbia Journal Winter Contest, Winner, 2021
Witness Literary Awards, Finalist, 2025
Disquiet International Literay Prize, Longlisted, 2024
American Short(er) Fiction Prize, Semi-finalist, 2024
The Halifax Fiction Prize, Semi-Finalist, 2023
American Short(er) Fiction Prize, Finalist, 2023
New Millennium Writing Award, Fianlist, 2023
New Millennium Writing Award, Honorable Mention, 2023
Disquiet International Literary Prize, Longlisted, 2023
Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction, Longlisted, 2023
The Halifax Fiction Prize, Semi-Finalist, 2022
Story Foundation Prize, Finalist, 2022
Disquiet Literary Contest, Longlisted, 2022
Best of the Net, Nominee, 2022
John Steinbeck Award in Fiction, Finalist, 2021
Rick DeMarinis Short Story Contest, Finalist, 2021
Pushcart Prize, Nominee, 2021
China Short Story Biennial Award, Longlisted, 2023
FICTION
“My Dying Process,” The Southern Review, 2025
– The Halifax Fiction Prize Semi-finalist
– Disquiet International Literay Prize Semi-finalist
“The Perfect Match,” swamp pink, 2024
– American Short(er) Fiction Prize Finalist
– New Millennium Writing Award Honorable Mention
“Purification,” North American Review, 2024
– Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction Semi-finalist
“Before Midnight, Return Home,” Pinch, 2024
“Shipwreck,” Georgia Review, 2023
– National Magazine Awards in Fiction Finalist
– Aura Estrada Short Story Contest Semi‑finalist
– “Yiru Zhang has a stunningly absurd story that dramatizes one personʼs malaise in working for a news agency in current-day Shanghai.” — Georgia Review
– Disquiet Literary Contest Semi-finalist
“Sisters,” Columbia Journal, 2023
– Columbia Journal Contest Winner
– Story Foundation Prize Finalist
– Rick DeMarinis Short Story Contest Finalist
“Dear Mothers, We Are No Longer Lost,” Boston Review, 2022
– Aura Estrada Short Story Contest Winner
“If You Want Another Universe, Lover,” Reed Magazine, 2022
– John Steinbeck Award for Fiction Finalist
“They Will Melt Away Anyway,” Gordon Square Review, 2021
– Pushcart Nominee
– Best of the Net Nominee
“Meng,” The Florida Review, 2021
“Whenever I Wanted To Say Something I Said Nothing,” Tahoma Literary Review, 2021
“The Order of Love,” Fiction World, 2023
“Volcanology,” Fiction World, 2022
– Short Story Biennial Award Semi-finalist
“Hunting Season,” Youth, 2021
“Montreal,” Youth, 2021
“Layered Skies,” Taiwan-Hong Kong Literature Selection, 2018
– Shanghai Original Fiction Prize, First Place
CONVERSATIONS
“A Conversation with C Pam Zhang,” 2025, Fiction World
“A Conversation with Graeme Macrae Burnet,” 2024, Fiction World
“A Conversation with Colin Barrett,” 2023, Fiction World
“Interview with Susan Choi,” 2023, Fiction World
“A Conversation with David Vann,” 2019, Fiction World
“A Conversation with Forrest Gander,” 2019, Fiction World
“Interview with Matt Sanlinger,” 2019, Fiction World
“A Conversation with Yan Lianke,” 2019, QDaily
“A Conversation with Han Dong,” 2019, QDaily
“A Conversation with Liao Weitang,” 2019, QDaily
ENGLISH TO CHINESE TRANSLATIONS
Black in Lacquer by Christopher Doyle, Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing House, 2023
“Why Are They Throwing Bricks?” by Jenny Zhang, Shanghai Literature, 2019
“We Love You Chrispina” by Jenny Zhang, Fiction World, 2019
“The Dungeon Master” by Sam Lipsyte, Fiction World, 2018
“Making the Show” by Steve Kluger, Fiction World, 2018
“Big Me” by Dan Chaon, Fiction World, 2018
“Faces” by Aimee Bender, Fiction World, 2018
REVIEWS
– “The tender and fraught relationship between the two girls, so much of it played out in subtext indecipherable to the unobservant hosts, is beautifully captured here. The story moves through time and space to create a layered and complicated narrator in a short number of pages. ‘Sisters’ does what most excites me in a short story, capturing a particular moment in the lives of its characters while simultaneously gesturing toward the larger world, in particular, toward history, displacement, and all the forces beyond our immediate lives that teach us how to be who are.” — Danielle Evans
– ” ʻDear Mothers, We Are No Longer Lostʼ is a wondrous and beautiful short story about two people and what pulls them together and rips them apart. Intimate and atmospheric, I knew by page one that I was reading a unique and special voice. I felt held by such graceful and powerful lines as: ʻWe Chinese girls were forever haunted by our Chinese mothers. No matter where we were heading in life, their shadows would always follow us, weeping like a lost child. ʼ Or: ʻBack then we could only afford to share a basement. It was poverty that brought us together, I often thought. In the soil of poverty, our love grew. ʼ This short story addresses those universal themes of love, belonging, and the desire for the freedom to be who we truly are. This is a writer to watch, a voice I want to read again and again.” — Kali Fajardo-Anstine
“Full of riveting details and richly described scenes, this piece stood out to us for the clarity and strength of its prose. The story explores a complex relationship dynamic without any feeling of judgement; we were moved by the protagonist’s attempts to live with pain and make sense of messy life experience.” — Disquiet International Literary Prize
“The piece exemplified the skillful and compelling narration that we were looking for.” — Reed Magazine
PRESS
“Chinese Young Writers Voicing Out in English, Hitting Straight to the World,” Literary Journal, 2023
“Interview on ‘The Order of Love’,” Fiction World, 2023
“Repair—A Virtual Celebration of Literature,” Boston Review, 2022
“Interview with ‘Volcanology’,” Fiction World, 2022
“Announcing the 2021 Aura Estrada Short Story Contest Winner and Finalists,” Boston Review, 2021
“Meaningfully Connected with the World” by Lin Zhou, Youth, 2019
“Insights and Perspectives Forum”, Youth, 2019
“Literary Journal · New Criticism” Eighth Anniversary Short Film, Literary Journal, 2019
“The Most Important Thing for Authors to Avoid is Fixed Ideas and Themes” – Special Report on “What Kind of New Voices Our Literature Needs,” Literary Journal, 2019
NON-FICTION
BOOK REVIEWS
“Dimensions of Identity” (Literary Journal’s Emerging Voices), Literary Journal, 2021
“Observing Non-Fiction Writing in Europe and America: It Never Forgets Its Fairness and Impartiality” (Published by Shanghai Literary Review Special Fund), Literary Journal, 2019
“Ian McEwan’s New Work Published, His Views on Science Fiction Spark Controversy,” QDaily, 2019
“Chinese-American Sci-Fi Writer Ted Chiang Releases New Work, Two of Which Have Been Adapted by Hollywood,” QDaily, 2019
“Monologue of the Vagina Author Releases New Work, Writes an Apology Mimicking Her Father’s Sexual Assault,” QDaily, 2019
“Peppa Pig: How Animation Stories Triumph with Values,” Crazy Reading, 2019
“Loss and Gain, Farewell and Prospect: 2019 Overview of European and American Literature,” Literary Journal, 2019
“2016 Booker Prize Longlist Announced: They Challenge Our Expectations of Novels,” Literary Journal, 2016
“Joseph Brodsky & Grief and Reason: Writing Poetry in Russian, Writing Essays in English,” Shanghai Weekly, 2015
“Falling for Shakespeare,” Xinhua Digest, 2015
“Multifaceted Dali: The Cross-Border Talent’s Dream of Filmmaking,” Modern Weekly, 2015
“Ishiguro Kazuo: Ten Years with Buried Giant,” Shanghai Weekly, 2015
“Kurt Cobain’s ‘Montage of Heck’: A Calm Burning,” Shanghai Weekly, 2015
“150th Anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: Lewis Carroll and His Alice,” Shanghai Weekly, 2015
“Sight,” Once-a-week, Shanghai Weekly, 2014-2015
“David Harsent & Fire Songs: Finally Winning the Eliot Poetry Prize,” Shanghai Weekly, 2015
“Larry Niven and the Triumph of Hard Sci-Fi,” Shanghai Weekly, 2015
“Nick Hornby: Returning to the 1960s,” Shanghai Weekly, 2015
“Stephen King & A Death: A Natural and Sweet Distillation,” Shanghai Weekly, 2015
“Hilary Mantel: No Conflict Between Fascinating History and Drama,” Shanghai Weekly, 2015
“Llosa & The Discreet Hero: Writing Until Life’s Last Day,” Shanghai Weekly, 2015
“Aleksievich: Her Works Are ‘Novels in Voices’,” Literary Journal, 2015
“Falling for Shakespeare,” Sanlian Life Weekly, 2014
“The Best Books of 2014,” Shanghai Weekly, 2014
“2015, They Also Have New Works,” Shanghai Weekly, 2014
“Sidney Shapiro: Introducing Chinese Literature to the World,” Literary Journal, 2014
“From Global Literary Awards to New Year’s New Works,” Literary Journal, 2014
“Modiano Wins the Nobel Prize: The Award Speech Fails to Grasp Him Truly,” Literary Journal, 2014
“Colleen McCullough: The Swan Song of The Thorn Birds,” Literary Journal, 2014
“The Hero Who Slays the Hydra,” Literary Journal, 2014
“Awakening the Forgotten France: Lydie Salvayre Wins the 2014 Goncourt Prize,” Literary Journal, 2014
“Kawabata Yasunari’s Love Letters and Works,” Literary Journal, 2014
“World Literature Trends,” Literary Journal, Once-a-week, 2014-present
“Visiting Japan’s Old Shops: Artisans Living in the World of Handcrafts and Human Connections,” The Bund, 2014
“The Ultimate Thrilling Experience of Reading Books: The Existing Books Bound with Human Skin,” The Bund, 2014
“Blur’s Powerful Comeback,” Yangtse Evening Post, 2009
ESSAYS
“Natural Stroll | Nanjing River Tour”, The Paper, 2019
“Great Rapids, Endless Winter,” Yangtse Evening Post, 2019
“Farewell to Summer,” Yangtse Evening Post, 2019
“With Friends,” Yangtse Evening Post, 2019
“Returning to Great Rapids,” Yangtse Evening Post, 2019
Co-author, The Details of the United Kingdom, Shanghai Splendid Article Publishing House, 2015
Yiru Zhang 