Often considered by critics and scholars to be a prime candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Yan Lianke is a world-renowned and uniquely versatile Chinese writer, recognized for both his artistry and his hard-nosed political stances. The most prolific and outspoken of Chinese authors, he is a masterful writer of fiction, blending the realistic, historical, supernatural, surrealistic, and folkloric. In his novels and essays, he has bravely confronted the problems of China’s social and political history head-on, often defying past and present government policies in the process.

Lianke was born in Henan, China, in 1958. He received a degree in politics and education from Henan University and a degree in literature from the People’s Liberation Army Art Institute. He is the author of seventeen novels, over two dozen collections of short stories and novellas, and nearly as many collections of essays, as well as television and film scripts.