Yi Shun Lai
Desert Nights, Rising Stars Faculty 2021
Piper Writers Studio Instructor 2020
Desert Nights, Rising Stars Sponsored Presenter 2020
Piper Writers Studio Visiting Writer 2019
Desert Nights, Rising Stars Fellow 2019
About Yi Shun Lai
Yi Shun Lai (say "yeeshun" for her first name) lives in Southern California. Her debut novel, Not a Self-Help Book: The Misadventures of Marty Wu was a semi-finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Her memoir Pin Ups will be published in September 2020 by Homebound Publications. She teaches in the MFA programs at Bay Path and Southern New Hampshire Universities.
More About Yi Shun Lai
Doucette, Elisa. "Writers' Rough Drafts - Episode #35 With Yi Shun Lai." Craft Your Content, July 4, 2018.
What You'll Learn this Week:
Intentionally creating a physical and mental creative space wherever you are.
Spending some serious time on kindness in your creative life.
Adding an origin story to inanimate objects to write better copy.
Finding your best writing “in the weeds”.
Writing for (and with) publications other than your own blog.
Demystifying what editors do for writers.
Duhr, David. "Q&A With Yi Shun Lai." Write By Night, May 10, 2016
This “waiting period” is hopelessly full of not-waiting. There is a ton of stuff to do. The pub date is a deadline: the day by which you hope the folks who have promised to review the book will have done so; the day on which you remind all the people who bought pre-sale copies to go to Amazon and Goodreads and review the living heebie-jeebies out of the thing.
Oliveira, Melissa. "[REVIEW] Not a Self Help Book: The Misadventures of Marty Wu by Yi Shun Lai." Pank Magazine, May 9, 2016.
As long as we suspect we’re falling short in some area of our lives, there’s really no end to the books we will buy to try to improve: a 2014 article I read stated that self-improvement was “a $10 billion per year industry in the U.S. alone.” As it turns out, when it comes to solving the problem of ourselves, we have very deep pockets — and solving herself is exactly what Marty, the smart but hapless narrator of Yi Shun Lai’s wonderful new novel, Not A Self-Help Book: The Misadventures of Marty Wu, seems on a quest to do.
Lai, Yi Shun. "Why I Had To Leave My Parents In Order To Finally Call The Place I Grew Up Home." Bustle, June 8, 2015.
“Home is where the heart is,” sure, but my parents prefer my brother’s variation. He says “home” is wherever Mom and Dad are. I thought a lot about that as my husband and I made the move from our home in New York to the place I’d left 17 years before: my hometown of Claremont, CA. I wasn’t sure I felt the same way.
---. "Kill book sales with kindness." The Writer, August 8, 2017.
Promoting your novel doesn't have to be a soulless affair. This debut author hit the best-seller list with gratitude, generosity, and plenty of engagement.