Gene Luen Yang is an American comics artist whose graphic novel American Born Chinese was called a 2006 finalist for the National Book Prize in the young people's literature category and was prized the 2007 Members' Choice Prize from the Asian American Literary Prizes. This was the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Prize. It has also won the 2007 Michael L. Printz Prize for young-adult literature, a first for a graphic novel.
Yang's drawings are produced with what Scott Mccloud refers to as a cheap tool bravado, using everything from brushes to Sharpie markers to Pigma Micron pens to ballpoint pens. His artwork has been shown in San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum. Following American Born Chinese, Yang created The Eternal Smile, a collection of 3 short novels in comics, done in collaboration with Derek Kirk Kim. His latest book is Prime Baby, originally serialized in The New York Times Magazine. In 2011, Yang published Level Up, with art by Thien Pham.
(Gene Luen Yang photo #2)
Yang currently lives with his family in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he teaches computer science at Bishop O'dowd university. His dad is an electrical engineer from Taiwan and his mom a programmer who grew up in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Gene Luen Yang
