Julie Yip-Williams (January 6, 1976 – March 19, 2018) was an American lawyer and writer, born Diep Ly Thanh in Vietnam.

Early life and education

Diep Ly Thanh was born in

Tam Kỳ Tam Kỳ () is the capital city of Quảng Nam Province, in the South Central Coast of Vietnam. As of 2019, the city had a population of 122,374. History The town was established in 1906 under the Nguyễn dynasty as an administrative and ta ...

, South Vietnam, the daughter of Diep The Phu (Peter Yip) and Lam Que Anh (Ann Yip). She was blind from

congenital cataract Congenital cataracts are a lens opacity that is present at birth. Congenital cataracts occur in a broad range of severity. Some lens opacities do not progress and are visually insignificant, others can produce profound visual impairment. Cong ...

s, and a grandmother pressured her parents to find an herbalist to end the baby's life. In 1979, she escaped Vietnam with dozens of family members, in a fishing boat. They landed in Hong Kong as refugees, and moved to California by the end of 1979. She was raised in

Monterey Park, California Monterey Park is a city in the western San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States, approximately east of the Downtown Los Angeles civic center. It is bordered by Alhambra, California, Alhambra, East Los Angeles, ...

. Her vision was improved with surgery in Los Angeles, but she remained legally blind. Yip earned a bachelor's degree from

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

in Massachusetts, and a J.D. degree from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

Career

Yip worked in

corporate law Corporate law (also known as company law or enterprise law) is the body of law governing the rights, relations, and conduct of persons, companies, organizations and businesses. The term refers to the legal practice of law relating to corpora ...

in New York City from 2002. In 2013, after being diagnosed with

colon cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel ...

, Yip-Williams started a

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

, to share her experience with the disease and treatment, and to leave a record of herself for her young daughters. In her last months, she also made recordings for a

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

produced by Eleanor Kagan, titled ''Julie''. The blog and other writing by Yip-Williams, including a manuscript about her childhood, were compiled into a memoir, ''The Unwinding of the Miracle: A Memoir of Life, Death, and Everything That Comes After'' (2019), edited by her friend Mark Warren and published posthumously. The book was frequently compared to

Paul Kalanithi Paul Sudhir Arul Kalanithi (April 1, 1977 – March 9, 2015) was an American neurosurgeon and writer. His book '' When Breath Becomes Air'' is a memoir about his life and illness with stage IV metastatic lung cancer. It was posthumously published ...

's memoir ''

When Breath Becomes Air ''When Breath Becomes Air'' is a non-fiction autobiographical book written by American neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi. It is a memoir about his life and battling stage IV metastatic lung cancer. It was posthumously published by Random House on Januar ...

'' (2016), and

Nina Riggs Nina Ellen Riggs (March 29, 1977 – February 26, 2017) was an American writer and poet. Her best known work is her memoir, ''The Bright Hour'', detailing her journey as a mother with incurable breast cancer. It was published shortly after her ...

' ''The Bright Hour'' (2017), which both had similar themes. It was included in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''' "100 Notable Books of 2019" annual feature.

Personal life

Julie Yip married fellow lawyer Joshua Williams. They had two daughters, Mia and Isabelle. Yip-Williams died from colon cancer in 2018, aged 42, at her home in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

References

External links

Julie Yip-Williams
(her blog).
The video trailer for her memoir
by

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

; on YouTube. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yip-Williams, Julie 21st-century American memoirists Blind writers American bloggers Williams College alumni Harvard Law School alumni 1976 births 2018 deaths People from Quảng Nam province Deaths from colorectal cancer in New York (state) 20th-century American lawyers Blind lawyers American lawyers with disabilities American blind people American writers with disabilities