Ilyon Woo is a

Korean American Korean Americans () are Americans of full or partial Korean ethnic descent. While the broader term Overseas Korean in America () may refer to all ethnic Koreans residing in the United States, the specific designation of Korean American impli ...

author. She won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

Education

Woo attended the public elementary school King Open School in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

alongside

Imani Perry Imani Perry (born September 5, 1972) is an American interdisciplinary scholar of race, law, literature, and African American culture. She is currently the Henry A. Morss, Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender and Sex ...

. She graduated with a BA in the Humanities from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

in 1994. She received her

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in English from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 2004.

Career

In 2010, Woo published ''The Great Divorce: A Nineteenth-Century Mother's Extraordinary Fight Against Her Husband, the Shakers, and Her Times,'' which takes place in the 19th century and focuses on Eunice Chapman. Her 2023 book '' Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom'', a history of the escape of

Ellen and William Craft Ellen Craft (1826–1891) and William Craft (September 25, 1824 – January 29, 1900) were American abolitionists who were born into slavery in Macon, Georgia. They escaped to the Northern United States in December 1848 by traveling by train and ...

from slavery, was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2023 by ''The'' ''New York Times'', one of the 100 must-read books of 2023 by ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

,'' and won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. Woo was also a featured author at the 2024

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

Literature Festival and 2024 Newburyport Literary Festival.

Books

*''The Great Divorce: A Nineteenth-Century Mother's Extraordinary Fight Against Her Husband, the Shakers, and Her Times''. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2010.' *''Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom''. 37 INK, 2023.

References

External links

* * Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Nationality missing 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century women writers Yale College alumni Columbia University alumni American writers of Korean descent Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners {{nonfiction-writer-stub