Yiyun Li wins PEN/Malamud Award for short stories

NEW YORK (AP) — Author Yiyun Li has received one of the top honors for short story writers, the PEN/Malamud Award for “exceptional achievement.”

Li, 49, has published the collections “Gold Boy” and “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers,” along with five novels and two nonfiction books. She has received numerous other awards, and teaches creative writing at Princeton University. Two of her short stories, “The Princess of Nebraska” and the title work from “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers,” were adapted into films by Wayne Wang.

The Malamud Award was established in 1988 and is named for the late author Bernard Malamud. It has previously been given to Alice Munro, Saul Bellow and George Saunders among others.

“I consider myself a dedicated practitioner of short stories, and I am thrilled by this recognition,” Li said in a statement Monday. “I have taught Bernard Malamud’s stories for nearly 20 years, so this award also feels deeply personal.”