Hanya Yanagihara (born 1974) is an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

, editor, and

travel writer The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern per ...

. She grew up in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

. She is best known for her bestselling novel ''

A Little Life ''A Little Life'' is a 2015 novel by American writer Hanya Yanagihara. Despite its length and difficult subject matters, it became a critically acclaimed best seller. Structure ''A Little Life'' follows a chronological narrative with flashbacks ...

'', which was shortlisted for the 2015 Booker Prize, and for being the

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of ''T Magazine''.

Early life

Hanya Yanagihara was born in 1974 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. Her father, hematologist/

oncologist Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγκος (''ó ...

Ronald Yanagihara, is from Hawaii, and her mother was born in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

. Yanagihara is partly of Japanese descent through her father. As a child, Yanagihara moved frequently with her family, living in

, New York,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. She attended

Punahou High School Punahou School (known as Oahu College until 1934) is a private, co-educational, college preparatory school in Honolulu, Hawaii. More than 3,700 students attend the school from kindergarten through twelfth grade, 12th grade. Protestant missionar ...

in Hawaii. She attended Smith College and graduated in 1995. Yanagihara has said that her father introduced her as a girl to the work of Philip Roth and to "British writers of a certain age", such as

Anita Brookner Anita Brookner (16 July 1928 – 10 March 2016) was an English novelist and art historian. She was Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge from 1967 to 1968 and was the first woman to hold this visiting professorship. She ...

Iris Murdoch Dame Jean Iris Murdoch ( ; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her ...

, and

Barbara Pym Barbara Mary Crampton Pym FRSL (2 June 1913 – 11 January 1980) was an English novelist. In the 1950s she published a series of social comedies, of which the best known are ''Excellent Women'' (1952) and '' A Glass of Blessings'' (1958). In 1977 ...

. Of Pym and Brookner, she says, "there is a suspicion of the craft that the male writers of their generation didn't have, a metaphysical reckoning of what is it actually doing for the world". She has said that "the contemporary writers I admire most are Hilary Mantel, Kazuo Ishiguro, and John Banville".

Career

After college, Yanagihara moved to New York and worked for several years as a publicist. She wrote and was an editor for '' Condé Nast Traveler''. Her first novel, '' The People in the Trees'', partly based on the real-life case of the virologist

Daniel Carleton Gajdusek Daniel Carleton Gajdusek ( ;Holley, Joe (December 16, 2008) "D. Carleton Gajdusek; Controversial Scientist", ''The Washington Post'', p. B5. September 9, 1923 – December 12, 2008) was an American physician and medical researcher who was the co ...

, was praised as one of the best novels of 2013. Yanagihara's ''

'' was published in March 10th, 2015, and received widespread critical acclaim. The book was shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize for fiction, the 2016

Women's Prize for Fiction The Women's Prize for Fiction (previously with sponsor names Orange Prize for Fiction (1996–2006 and 2009–12), Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (2007–08) and Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (2014–2017)) is one of the United Kingdom's m ...

and won the 2015 Kirkus Prize for fiction. Yanagihara was also selected as a finalist for the 2015

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

in Fiction. ''A Little Life'' defied the expectations of its editor, of Yanagihara's agent, and of the author herself, that it would not sell well. Yanagihara described writing the book at its best as "glorious as surfing; it felt like being carried aloft on something I couldn't conjure but was lucky enough to have caught, if for just a moment. At its worst, I felt I was somehow losing my ownership over the book. It felt, oddly, like being one of those people who adopt a tiger or lion when the cat's a baby and cuddly and manageable, and then watch in dismay and awe when it turns on them as an adult". In 2015, she left Condé Nast to become a deputy editor at '' T: The New York Times Style Magazine.'' She has said that after she published her best selling sophomore novel, people in the publishing industry were baffled by her decision to take a job at ''T''. Describing the publishing world as "a provincial community, more or less as snobby as the fashion industry", she said, "I'd get these underhanded comments like, 'oh, I never knew there were words n ''T Magazine''worth reading'". Of working as an editor while writing fiction on the side, she says, "I've never done it any other way". In 2017, she became the editor-in-chief of ''T''. Yanagihara's third novel, '' To Paradise'', was published in January 11th, 2022, and reached number one on ''The New York Times'' best seller list.

Awards and honours

* ''

:'' Winner of 2015 Kirkus Prize for Fiction * ''

:'' Shortlisted for the 2015 Booker Prize * ''

:'' Finalist for the 2015

for Fiction * ''

:'' Shortlisted for the 2016

Works and publications

* '' The People in the Trees'', 2013 * ''

'', 2015 * '' To Paradise'', 2022

References

External links

Interview on Meet The Writers with Georgina Godwin
at Soundcloud {{DEFAULTSORT:Yanagihara, Hanya 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American novelists American women novelists American women travel writers American travel writers American magazine writers American magazine editors American women editors American novelists of Asian descent American writers of Japanese descent American writers of Korean descent American women writers of Asian descent Novelists from Hawaii Writers from New York City Kirkus Prize winners Punahou School alumni Smith College alumni Living people 1974 births