Green Island (Ryan) - Author Bio

Author Bio
• Birth—1976
• Where—Sacramento, California, USA
• Education—B.A., University of California (UCLA), Berkeley; M.A., UCLA, Davis
• Awards—Elliot Cades Emerging Writer Award
• Currently—lives in Honolulu, Hawaii


Shawna Yang Ryan is a Taiwanese American novelist, short story writer, and creative writing professor, who currently teaches at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. She is the author of two novels: Water Ghosts (2009) and Green Island (2016).

Ryan was born in Sacramento, California, to parents who met during the Vietnam War: her mother was born in Taiwan and the daughter of Chinese immigrants who fled the mainland in 1949 with Chiang Kai-shek. Her Caucasian father was born in Berlin, Germany, and grew up all around Europe and America, eventually meeting her mother while stationed in Taiwan.

She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, where she received her B.A., and the University of California, Davis, where she received her M.A. in Creative Writing. She was also a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan during 2002. Ryan currently lives in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Stories
In addition to two novels, Ryan's short stories have appeared in ZYZZYVA, Swill Magazine, Asian American Literary Review, Kartika Review, and Berkeley Fiction Review. Her short story "Marginalia," published in the Fall 2013 issue of Asian American Literary Review was nominated for a Pushcart Prize that year.

Accolades
In 2015, Ryan received the Elliot Cades Emerging Writer Award from the Hawai'i Literary Arts Council. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 2/29/2016.)