Meet 2017 Winner YZ Chin
(Photo: Drew Stevens)
About YZ Chin:
YZ Chin was born and raised in Taiping, Malaysia. She now lives in New York, working as a software engineer by day and a writer by night.
“As an immigrant writer I have profound gratitude for a prize that not only seeks out work by underrepresented voices in publishing, but also rewards artistic decisions that may be considered ‘risky,’ such as incorporating politics into art, and otherwise creating bold or experimental writing. I am proud to debut under such a worthy banner.”
Though I Get Home
In these stories, characters navigate fate via deft sleights of hand: a grandfather gambles on the monsoon rains, a consort finds herself a new assignment, and a religious man struggles to keep his demons at bay. Central to the book is Isabella Sin, a small-town girl—and frustrated writer—transformed into a prisoner of conscience in Malaysia’s most notorious detention camp.
YZ Chin is the winner of the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize, an initiative begun by the Feminist Press and TAYO Literary Magazine to lift up women and nonbinary writers of color. Called “complex and intimate” by prize judge Ana Castillo, this debut examines the tension between individual motivation and globalizing circumstance.
“A haunting, surprising, and rebellious collection that contains multitudes.”
