Jenny Zhang

About the Author

Jenny Zhang is a critically acclaimed author and essayist whose incisive prose captures the raw complexities of immigrant family life, female adolescence, and the immigrant experience in contemporary America. Born in Shanghai and raised in the United States, Zhang draws from her own bicultural background to explore themes of identity, desire, and cultural dislocation with unflinching honesty and sharp wit. Her debut collection of short stories, Sour Heart, earned widespread praise for its vivid portrayals of Chinese-American youth navigating poverty and ambition in New York City, while her novel Babe delves into the messy intimacies of young women's friendships and heartbreaks. A former staff writer at Rookie magazine and a contributor to publications like The New Yorker and Granta, Zhang's work bridges fiction and nonfiction, challenging conventional narratives with her bold, empathetic voice. She holds an MFA from Iowa Writers' Workshop and continues to push boundaries in literary fiction.