TTLG Author/Illustrator Profiles
Laurence Yep

"I was born in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1948, but grew up in a black neighborhood. During elementary and middle school, I commuted to a bilingual school in Chinatown. So I did not confront white American culture until high school. Approaching that culture as an outsider, I have been fascinated by all its aspects — from its great novels to its children's literature, comic art, and science fiction. Thus, I am able to pursue the figure of the "stranger" both in my studies and my writing.
While I was in high school, I discovered and began writing science fiction. At 18, my first short story was published — I was paid a penny a word by a science fiction magazine. I continued to write and five years later I published my first novel, Sweetwater.
In 1966, I attended Marquette University and graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1970. I received my doctorate in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where I wrote my dissertation on William Faulkner's early novels. I now live in San Francisco with my wife, Joanne Ryder, and write and teach."
Probably the reason why 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. All of my books have dealt with the outsider — from the aliens of Sweetwater to alienated heroes such as the Chinese-American aviator in Dragonwings."
Today Laurence Yep is known as a premier Asian-American writer. His books have earned many accolades, including Newbery Honor Awards for Dragonwings and Dragon's Gate.
Books Written:
- A Dragon's Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans
- A Dragon's Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans Audio
- Golden Mountain Chronicles: 1849 – The Serpent’s Children
- Golden Mountain Chronicles: 1855 - Mountain Light
- Golden Mountain Chronicles: 1867 – Dragon's Gate
- Golden Mountain Chronicles: 1903 - Dragonwings
- Hiroshima
- The Earth Dragon Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906
- The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung: A Chinese Miner, California 1852