Kathryn Ma is the author of the widely-praised novel The Year She Left Us, named a New York Times Editors' Choice. Her story collection, All That Work and Still No Boys, won the Iowa Short Fiction Award and was 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 twice being named a San Francisco Public Library Laureate.
Short stories, reviews and essays by Kathryn have appeared in The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, More, Antioch Review, Kenyon Review, Northwest Review, Prairie Schooner, Slice, Southwest Review, Threepenny Review, TriQuarterly and elsewhere. Fellowships and residencies include Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, CastellodiMovimento, Yaddo and St. Mary's College of California.
Kathryn holds a bachelor’s degree with distinction and a master’s degree in history from Stanford University, and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley. She practiced law before becoming a writer. She has taught creative writing at the University of Oregon, San Francisco State University, University of San Francisco and elsewhere.
An active volunteer in the arts and education, Kathryn was the Founding Board Clerk of the San Francisco Friends School, a Quaker K-8 school, and a long-time member of the Board of Directors of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, where she currently serves on the Emeritus Board. For a number of years, she chaired the Fiction Jury for the California Book Awards. She lives with her family in San Francisco and has been a member of the True to the Mood Book Club for over thirty years.
To listen to interviews with Kathryn, click here.
To read about Kathryn's book club, click here.
Photo: Andria Lo
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