About+Laurence+Yep

Just who is Laurence Yep?


As a boy, Laurence Yep was exposed to many different cultures, but he did not feel he could call any one of them his own. His parents were of Chinese heritage, though both grew up in the United States, and his father owned a grocery store in an African American neighborhood in San Francisco. It was in this neighborhood that Laurence grew up, but he did not feel part of the community. He says that he felt as if he were the neighborhood’s “all-purpose Asian,” even though he did not even speak Chinese. Yep was not exposed to the culture of mainstream white America until he entered high school. Yep’s experiences as a youth made him feel like an outsider. Although most people would consider that feeling to be disadvantageous, he believes it helped him as a writer. Yep says: //Probably the reason that much of my writing has found its way to a teenage audience is that I’m always pursuing the theme of being an outsider—an alien—and many teenagers feel they’re aliens.//

Actually, Yep did not intend to become a writer. Listen to this interview to find out what motivated him to submit his work for publication.

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In 1975 Yep’s second novel, //Dragonwings//, was published. This novel established Yep as a powerful voice for Chinese Americans. His own father, a kite maker, was the model for the character of Windrider. Yep sees his book as “a way of stepping into the shoes of members of my family.” But his efforts as a writer are not just about family, or even about how people find their place in the world. As Yep says: //When I wrote of the aeroplane called ‘Dragonwings,’ I was actually dealing with the reach of our imagination. . . that power in each of us to grasp with the mind and heart what we cannot immediately grasp with the hand.//

Laurence Yep has written many other books and articles and has received numerous awards. He is now a writer in residence at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He lives with his wife, Joanne Ryder, also a writer, in Sunnyvale, California, near San Francisco.

Citations Print: Glencoe Literature Library. Study Guide for //Dragonwings// by Laurence Yep. Accessed online: http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/dragonwings.html. 16 February 2011. Video: Reading Rockets sponsored video. YouTube. Accessed online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USRnvomwZ30. 19 February 2011. Images: Digital Image of Laurence Yep accessed online at Google Images 19 February 2011.