Yep, Laurence (1948-…), an American author of children’s books, is best known for novels that explore his Chinese heritage. Critics have praised Yep for his realistic and historically accurate exploration of Chinese American culture and history.
Yep’s “Golden Mountain Chronicles” series of novels follows seven generations of the Yep family over a 150-year period from the family’s life in China to their experiences as American immigrants. Before starting the series, Yep spent six years researching Chinese American society. The series began with Dragonwings (1975). Among the titles in the series are Child of the Owl (1977), Sea Glass (1979), Thief of Hearts (1995), and The Traitor (2003). Much of the action takes place in the Chinese American community in San Francisco.
Yep wrote two novels about his parents’ lives, The Star Fisher (1991) and Dream Soul (2000). Yep also described Chinese immigrant life in the United States in Hiroshima: A Novella (1995), When the Circus Came to Town (2002), and The Earth Dragon Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 (2006).
Laurence Michael Yep was born in San Francisco on June 14, 1948. He received a B.A. degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1970 and a Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1975. Yep began his literary career writing science fiction at the age of 18. His first book was the science-fiction novel Sweetwater (1973). He also has written a series of “Dragon” fantasy novels, beginning with Dragon of the Lost Sea (1982). Several of Yep’s short stories were collected in Tongues of Jade (1991). With the American writer Joanne Ryder, Yep wrote the “Miss Drake” series about a grand dragon and her human “pet.” The series began with A Dragon’s Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans (illustrated by Mary GrandPré, 2015).
