Ling Ma Explained

Ling Ma
Birth Place:Sanming, Fujian, China
Known For:Severance
Occupation:Writer, professor
Workplaces:University of Chicago
Awards:Kirkus Prize
Windham-Campbell Literature Prize; Story Prize

Ling Ma is a Chinese American novelist and assistant professor of practice in the Arts at the University of Chicago. Her first book, Severance, won a 2018 Kirkus Prize and was listed as a New York Times Notable Book of 2018[1] and shortlisted for the 2019 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award.[2] Her second book, Bliss Montage, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and The Story Prize.[3] [4]

Early life

Ma was born in Sanming, Fujian, China,[5] initially an only child because of China's "one-child policy."[6] She grew up in Utah, Nebraska, and Kansas. She has an AB from the University of Chicago and received an MFA from Cornell University.[7]

Career

Ma's debut novel, Severance, is described as "a biting indictment of late-stage capitalism and a chilling vision of what comes after, but that doesn’t mean it’s a Marxist screed or a dry Hobbesian thought experiment."[8] Severance is a novel that is partially post-apocalyptic horror, and partially office satire. It follows the novel's narrator in the aftermath of the outbreak of a deadly fever that has killed almost everyone in the US.[9] An earlier chapter from the book won a 2015 Disquiet Literary Prize, the Graywolf Prize.[10]

Ma began the novel while working as a fact checker for Playboy, a job she held from 2009 to 2012.[11] It began as a short story, written in her office during her last few months there; after her layoff, it became a novel which she wrote while living on severance pay.[12] She took four years to write it,[13] and finished the novel at Cornell as part of the work in her MFA program.[14] Ma said she "felt pressured to write a traditional immigration novel" while in the MFA program at Cornell, but instead decided to write about otherness and alienation via the trope of zombie apocalypse.[15]

Ma has also published short stories in Granta, Playboy, and the Chicago Reader.[16] Ma's short story "Peking Duck" appears in the 2022 The New Yorker Fiction Issue.[17] Her first collection of short stories, Bliss Montage, was published in September 2022.[18] The collection won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction.[19]

She is the recipient of a 2023 Windham Campbell Prize for fiction.[20]

Works

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2018 Finalists . Kirkus Reviews . 2016-11-11 . 2019-01-22 . 2019-01-10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190110215103/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/prize/2018/finalists/ . dead .
  2. Web site: Announcing the 2019 PEN America Literary Awards Finalists. 2019-01-15. PEN America. 2019-02-23. 2019-10-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20191030134810/https://pen.org/2019finalists/. live.
  3. Web site: January 10, 2023. Here Are This Year's Finalists for the Story Prize. LitHub. April 27, 2024. April 5, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240405134529/https://lithub.com/here-are-this-years-finalists-for-the-story-prize-3/. live.
  4. Web site: March 15, 2023. Ling Ma's 'Bliss Montage' wins $20,000 Story Prize. ABC News. April 27, 2024. March 21, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230321030512/https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ling-mas-bliss-montage-wins-20000-story-prize-97897987. live.
  5. Web site: Bio. Ma. Ling. Tumblr. 2019-01-23. 2018-12-18. https://web.archive.org/web/20181218215423/http://lingma.tumblr.com/bio. live.
  6. Web site: In Satirical 'Severance,' A Stricken Country Works Itself To Death. Shapiro. Ari. 2018-08-10. NPR.org. 2019-01-23. 2019-01-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20190116102141/https://www.npr.org/2018/08/10/637473748/in-satirical-severance-a-stricken-country-works-itself-to-death. live.
  7. Web site: People: Ling Ma . University of Chicago, Division of the Humanities . 2022-09-10 . 2022-09-10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220910195504/https://english.uchicago.edu/people/ling-ma . dead .
  8. Book: SEVERANCE by Ling Ma Kirkus Reviews. en. 2019-06-29. 2023-04-05. https://web.archive.org/web/20230405153602/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ling-ma/severance-ma/?fb_comment_id=2206427286034399_2719769161366873. live.
  9. Web site: 'Severance' Is the Apocalyptic Millennial New York Immigrant Story You Didn't Know You Needed. 2018-08-14. Electric Literature. en-US. 2019-07-15. 2019-07-15. https://web.archive.org/web/20190715051354/https://electricliterature.com/severance-is-the-apocalyptic-millennial-new-york-immigrant-story-you-didnt-know-you-needed/. live.
  10. Web site: Finalist winners 2015 . Disquiet International . 2019-01-22 . 2019-01-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190123225345/http://disquietinternational.org/the-program/contests-scholarships/finalist-winners/2015-2/ . live .
  11. Web site: Ma . Ling . Crying At The Playboy Office . BuzzFeed News . 2018-08-10 . 2019-01-23 . 2019-01-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190123223616/https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/lingma/crying-at-the-playboy-office . live .
  12. Ling Ma's "Severance" Captures the Bleak, Fatalistic Mood of 2018 . Fan . Jiayang . The New Yorker . December 10, 2018 . 2019-01-23 . 2019-01-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190123223211/https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/ling-ma-severance-captures-the-bleak-fatalistic-mood-of-2018 . live .
  13. Web site: 'Office politics is, to some degree, horrifying' - Ling Ma on her horror-satire 'Severance'. Schaub. Michael. Los Angeles Times. 24 August 2018. 2019-07-15. 2019-07-15. https://web.archive.org/web/20190715085148/https://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc-ling-ma-20180824-story.html. live.
  14. Web site: Morgan . Adam . In 'Severance,' Ling Ma Destroys New York City . Chicago Review of Books . 2018-08-14 . 2019-01-23 . 2019-01-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190123223537/https://chireviewofbooks.com/2018/08/14/severance-ling-ma-interview/ . live .
  15. Web site: Borrelli . Christopher . Chicago author Ling Ma never thought she'd write a zombie apocalypse novel. Here's what changed her mind. . chicagotribune.com . 2019-01-15 . 2019-01-23 . 2019-01-22 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190122180121/https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/ct-ent-ling-ma-0116-story.html . live .
  16. Day, Madeline (2018-08-22). "Apocalyptic Office Novel: An Interview with Ling Ma ". The Paris Review. Retrieved 2019-01-23.
  17. 2022-06-29 . "Peking Duck" . 2022-07-20 . The New Yorker . en-US . 2022-07-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220720225436/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/11/peking-duck . live .
  18. Ling Ma on Writers and Their Parents . Leyshon . Cressida . The New Yorker . July 4, 2022 . 2022-07-18 . 2022-07-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220720201816/https://www.newyorker.com/books/this-week-in-fiction/ling-ma-07-11-22 . live .
  19. News: Varno . David . 2023-02-01 . NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE ANNOUNCES FINALISTS FOR PUBLISHING YEAR 2022 - National Book Critics Circle . en-US . National Book Critics Circle . 2023-02-03 . 2023-04-27 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230427222117/https://www.bookcritics.org/2023/01/31/national-book-critics-circle-announces-finalists-for-publishing-year-2022/ . live .
  20. Web site: 2023 Prize Recipients. Windham Campbell Prizes 2023. Windham Campbell Prizes. April 21, 2023. April 21, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230421201624/https://windhamcampbell.org/. live.

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