Year She Left Us (Ma)

Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
• Education—B.A., M.A., Stanford University; J.D., University of California
• Currently—lives in San Francisco, California


Kathryn Ma is the author of the widely-praised novel The Year She Left Us. Her story collection, All That Work and Still No Boys, won the Iowa Short Fiction Award. The book was also named a San Francisco Chronicle “Notable” Book, and a Los Angeles Times “Discoveries” Book. She received the David Nathan Meyerson Prize for Fiction, and the honor of being named a San Francisco Public Library Laureate.

Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Kathryn is the daughter of parents who emigrated from China. Her stories have appeared in the Antioch Review, Kenyon Review, Northwest Review, Prairie Schooner, Slice, Southwest Review, Threepenny Review, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere. Kathryn was a Fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and has taught in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Oregon. In 2011, she was a Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Saint Mary's College of California.

Kathryn holds a bachelor’s degree with distinction and a master’s degree in history from Stanford University. She earned a JD from the University of California, Berkeley and practiced law for a number of years in San Francisco. She is an active volunteer in the arts and education, serving previously as the founding board chair of the San Francisco Friends School and currently on the Board of Directors of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. She’s been a member of the True to the Mood book club for thirty years. Kathryn lives with her family in San Francisco. The Year She Left Us is her first novel. (From the author's website.)