Turning the Page

Drawing from her own rich and often difficult life experiences, Kelly Yang explores a new avenue of Asian American young adult literature that questions the American dream

- Zabrina Lo

There are many facets of Kelly Yang’s life that would seem ripe for adaptation into a book. The author’s journey from childhood poverty to Harvard graduate to celebrated writer may seem like a Cinderella-style arc, but like every fairytale, her story contains darkness. Characters, events and places in Yang’s colourful young adult novels serve as a breadcrumb trail that hints at her true life experiences with every chapter.

In 2018, Yang burst onto the literary scene with the semiautobiographical Front Desk, which details a Chinese immigrant girl’s struggle in California. As well as rave reviews, since its publication the book has won nearly 50 awards, including the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature in 2019, and was one of The Washington Post’s best books of the year. Room to Dream, the much-anticipated sequel, will be released next month.

Yang’s work is praised for taking on tough subjects without being patronising to her readers. “A successful writer is someone who’s not afraid to put the deeper emotional truth on the page,” she says. “If you’ve done that, it doesn’t matter if you’ve won a million awards or no awards.”

Yang is one of a growing list of Asian American authors writing for young readers, but despite her impressionable audience, what she tells them isn’t always sunshine and roses. When Tatler met Yang three months before the release of Room to Dream, the conversation flowed through the highs and lows of a life in which a gifted student born into a poor family would turn down a job offer as a lawyer to follow her dream and become a writer.