Lan Samantha Chang

{{short description|American professor and fiction writer}} {{distinguish|Samantha Chang (soccer)}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2022}} {{Infobox writer  | image = Lan Samantha Chang at AWP 2025 05 (cropped).jpg | name = Lan Samantha Chang {{no bold|張嵐}} | caption = Chang at AWP 2025 | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1965}} | birth_place = Appleton, Wisconsin, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = | nationality = | period = | genre = Novel, short story | subject = | movement = | notableworks = ''Hunger'' (1998) ''Inheritance'' (2005) ''All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost'' (2010) ''The Family Chao'' (2022) | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | influences = | influenced = | awards = Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction (2023) Berlin Prize (2021) PEN Open Book Award (2005) Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award (1998) | signature = | website = {{URL|http://www.lansamanthachang.com}} | education = {{ubl|Yale University (BA)|Harvard University (MPA)|University of Iowa (MFA)}} }} '''Lan Samantha Chang''' ({{Lang-zh|t=張嵐|p=Zhāng Lán}}; born 1965) is an American novelist and short story writer. She is the author of the novel ''The Family Chao'' and short story collection ''Hunger''. For her fiction, which explores Chinese American and Taiwanese American experiences, she is a recipient of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Berlin Prize, the PEN Open Book Award and the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award.

She is the Elizabeth M. Stanley Professor in the Arts at the University of Iowa and has been the director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop since 2005. She is the first woman, and the first Asian American, to hold the position.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Associated Press |title=Chang to head writing program |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-apr-12-et-quick12.2-story.html |website=Los Angeles Times |date=April 12, 2005 |access-date=May 6, 2023}}</ref>

== Early life and education == Chang was born to a ''waishengren'' family in Appleton, Wisconsin.<ref name="BIRNBAUM">Birnbaum, Robert, [http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/personalities/birnbaum_v_lan_samantha_chang.php "Lan Samantha Chang"], The Morning News</ref> Her parents had moved to Taiwan following the Retreat of the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan, then moved to the United States to attend college.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2004-09-27 |title=True to her words: Defying parental pressure to become a doctor or lawyer, Lan Samantha Chang has bounced from fellowship to fellowship and emerged with her latest novel "Inheritance" |url=https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2004/09/27/2003204632 |access-date=2025-01-12 |website=The New York Times |via=Taipei Times}}</ref>

Chang's mother, Helen Chung-hung (1937–2014), was born in Shanghai and, at age twelve, moved in 1949 to Taiwan, where she graduated as valedictorian from Taipei First Girls' High School.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-11-22 |title=Helen Chang — Appleton, IL (1937-2014) |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/obituaries/helen-chang-appleton-il/ |access-date=2025-04-07 |website=The Chicago Tribune |language=en-US |type=Obituary}}</ref> Chung-hung was the top female high school student in Taiwan during her graduation year.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014 |title=Helen Chang (1937–2014) |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/postcrescent/name/helen-chang-obituary?id=11965517 |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=The Post-Crescent |type=Obituary |publication-place=Appleton, Illinois}}</ref> Chang's father, Nai Lin Chang (1922–2020), was born in Beijing and, after leaving mainland China for Taiwan, served as a lieutenant colonel in the Republic of China Armed Forces and oversaw a production factory in Taiwan.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020 |title=Nai Chang (1922-2020) — Chicago, IL |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/chicagotribune/name/nai-chang-obituary?id=2818340 |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=The Chicago Tribune |type=Obituary |via=Legacy.com}}</ref> He later graduated from Columbia University with a degree in chemical engineering and Helen received an undergraduate education at Mount Mercy College.<ref name=":0" /> Nai Lin later returned to China in the 1980s on a visit.<ref>{{cite web |last1=O’Grady |first1=Brian; Adam O’Connor Rodriguez |title=Issue 55: A Conversation with Lan Samantha Chang |url=https://inside.ewu.edu/willowspringsmagazine/issue-55-a-conversation-with-lan-samantha-chang/ |website=Willow Springs Magazine |access-date=April 7, 2025}}</ref>

After high school, Chang graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian studies. As an undergraduate at Yale College, she was an editor of the ''Yale Daily News''. She then worked briefly in publishing in New York City, and earned an M.P.A. from the Harvard Kennedy School and an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She was also a Stegner Fellow in fiction at Stanford University.

== Work == Chang's first book is a novella and short stories, titled ''Hunger'' (1998). The stories are set in the US and China, and they explore home, family, and loss. The ''New York Times Book Review'' called it "Elegant.… A delicately calculated balance sheet of the losses and gains of immigrants whose lives are stretched between two radically different cultures."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Messud |first1=Claire |title=A Hole in Our House |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/25/books/a-hole-in-our-house.html |website=The New York Times Book Review |date=October 25, 1998 |access-date=May 6, 2023}}</ref> ''The Washington Post'' called it "A work of gorgeous, enduring prose."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Wan |first1=Helen C. |title=Children of Broken Dreams |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1998/10/18/children-of-broken-dreams/f821dd45-935f-4993-825d-6e75e211ddd9/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=May 6, 2023}}</ref> The collection won the California Book Awards' Silver Medal for Fiction and was a finalist for the ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Awards's Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction.

Her first novel, ''Inheritance'' (2004), is about a family torn apart by the Japanese invasion during World War II. ''The Boston Globe'' said: "The story…is foreign in its historical sweep and social detail but universal in its emotional truth." ''Publishers Weekly'' noted: "It is memory — rather than dramatic action — at which Chang excels; her prose is lovely."<ref>{{cite web |title=INHERITANCE |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-393-05919-9 |website=Publishers Weekly |access-date=May 6, 2023}}</ref> The novel won a PEN Open Book Award in 2005.<ref>{{cite web |title=2005 LITERARY AWARDS WINNERS |url=https://pen.org/2005-literary-awards-winners/ |website=pen.org |date=November 2, 2012 |access-date=May 6, 2023}}</ref>

Chang's second novel, ''All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost'' (2011), follows two poets and their friendship as they explore the depths and costs of making art. The book received a starred review from ''Booklist'' and praise: "Among the many threads Chang elegantly pursues—the fraught relationships between mentors and students, the value of poetry, the price of ambition—it is her indelible portrait of the loneliness of artistic endeavor that will haunt readers the most in this exquisitely written novel about the poet’s lot." NPR wrote: "This relatively short novel begins small, but blossoms into a full and resonant story of the pains and perils, falsehoods and truths of trying to be an American artist, in this case poet, against all odds, psychological and social. In its own way, it is rather unforgettable."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cheuse |first1=Alan |date=2010-11-23 |title=Book Review: 'All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost' |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131548533 |website=NPR |access-date=May 6, 2023}}</ref>

Chang's fourth book and third novel, ''The Family Chao'', was published by W. W. Norton & Company.<ref>{{Cite web |last=|date=|title=The Family Chao: A Novel |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/1252850118 |access-date=2024-12-02 |website=WorldCat}}</ref> ''The Guardian'' praised it: "One of the many pleasures of ''The Family Chao'' is the way the novel dramatises the gap between how a family wants to be seen, and its messier inner realities."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lee |first1=Jonathan |title=The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang review – a tasty succession drama |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/feb/10/the-family-chao-by-lan-samantha-chang-review-a-tasty-succession-drama |website=The Guardian |date=February 10, 2022 |access-date=May 6, 2023}}</ref> ''The Star Tribune'' called it "A playful literary romp with a serious heart. Operatic and subversive."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Chai |first1=May-lee |title=Review: 'The Family Chao,' by Lan Samantha Chang |url=https://www.startribune.com/review-the-family-chao-by-lan-samantha-chang/600140579/ |website=The Star Tribune |date=January 28, 2022 |access-date=May 6, 2023}}</ref>

Barack Obama chose the novel for his 2022 summer reading list.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Obama |first1=Barack |title=I've read a couple of great books this year and wanted to share some of my favorites so far. What have you been reading this summer? |url=https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1551923232327991298 |website=Twitter |date=2022-07-26|access-date=May 6, 2023}}</ref> The book was a ''Jeopardy!'' clue on October 6, 2022. It won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction in 2023.<ref>{{cite web |last=Nickoloff |first=Annie |title=Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Announce 2023 Winners |url=https://clevelandmagazine.com/entertainment/books/articles/anisfield-wolf-book-awards-announce-2023-winners |website=Cleveland Magazine |date=2023-04-03 |access-date=May 6, 2023}}</ref>

Chang has received fellowships from MacDowell, the American Library in Paris, the Guggenheim Foundation,<ref>{{Cite web|title=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation {{!}} Lan Samantha Chang|url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/lan-samantha-chang/|access-date=2020-10-25|language=en-US}}</ref> the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and the National Endowment for the Arts.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lan Samantha Chang {{!}} Iowa Writers' Workshop {{!}} College of Liberal Arts & Sciences {{!}} The University of Iowa |url=https://writersworkshop.uiowa.edu/people/lan-samantha-chang |access-date=2023-06-26 |website=writersworkshop.uiowa.edu}}</ref> In 2024, she received an Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a fourth MacDowell Fellowship.<ref>{{cite web |title=Chang proud to be part of Iowa's writing legacy |url=https://now.uiowa.edu/news/2024/04/chang-proud-be-part-iowas-writing-legacy |date=2024-04-25 |last=Office of Strategic Communication |website=Iowa Now |publisher=University of Iowa |access-date=April 29, 2024}}</ref>

== Directorship of Iowa Writers' Workshop == As the sixth director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Chang has been fundamental to the increase of racial, cultural, and aesthetic diversity within the program, and has mentored a number of emerging writers.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Neary |first=Lynn|date=2014-08-19 |title=In Elite MFA Programs, The Challenge of Writing While 'Other'|website=NPR.org |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/08/19/341363580/in-elite-mfa-programs-the-challenge-of-writing-while-other|access-date=2021-01-11|publisher=NPR|language=en}}</ref> Beyond that, she is credited with increasing the program’s endowment from $2.6 million to $12.5 million.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Zhang |first1=Ada | date=2023-12-09 |title=The Radical Vision of Lan Samantha Chang |url=https://apublicspace.org/news/detail/the-radical-vision-of-lan-samantha-chang |publisher=A Public Space |access-date=January 1, 2024}}</ref> In 2019, she received the Michael J. Brody Award<ref>{{Cite web|title=Michael J. Brody Award for Faculty Excellence in Service {{!}} Office of the Executive Vice President & Provost|url=https://provost.uiowa.edu/michael-j-brody-award-faculty-excellence-service|access-date=2021-01-11|website=provost.uiowa.edu}}</ref> and the Regents' Award for Excellence from the University of Iowa.

In a 2022 interview with ''Open Country Mag'', she discussed what her 17 years at the helm means: "One thing that seemed really clear to me was that if we were to represent American literature then we had to bring in literature from all over the world. There is the possibility of creating the conversation not just in this country but around the world that brings in as many voices as possible, and that is a goal of mine with this program. I feel like what we’re doing is work in progress."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Obi-Young |first1=Otosirieze |title=In Conversation with Lan Samantha Chang, Director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop |url=https://opencountrymag.com/in-conversation-with-lan-samantha-chang-director-of-the-iowa-writers-workshop/ |website=Open Country Mag |date=July 23, 2022 |access-date=May 6, 2023}}</ref>

About her work as the program director, ''Oprah Daily'' wrote: "Under Lan Samantha Chang’s mentorship, a new generation of writers has emerged."<ref>{{cite web |title=Lit Up |last1=Haber |first1=Leigh | last2=Cain |first2=Hamilton |last3=Mhute |first3=Wadzanai |last4=Sanders |first4=Joshunda |url=https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/books/a38554499/lit-up/?fbclid=IwAR3vWn4Av-BfVRvD6swZy2CHZRneYLUfopIQrUN_b7m3Dwn0Abs1pJQ7QOU |website=Oprah Daily |date=2022-01-12 |access-date=May 6, 2023}}</ref>

== Awards and distinctions ==

=== Literary awards === {| class="wikitable sortable" !Year !Title !Award !Category !Result !Ref. |- ! rowspan="3" |1998 | rowspan="5" |''Hunger'' |Bay Area Reviewers Award |—|| {{nom}} | |- |Commonwealth Club of California Book Awards |First Fiction|| {{sho|Silver Medal}} | |- |''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize |Art Seidenbaum Award|| {{sho|Finalist}} | |- ! rowspan="2" |1999 |PEN/Hemingway Award |—|| {{nom|Alternate}} | |- |WLA Literary Awards |—|| {{won}} | |- ! rowspan="4" |2005 | rowspan="4" |''Inheritance'' |Independent Publisher Book Awards |General Fiction|| {{sho|Finalist}} | |- |John Gardner Fiction Book Award |—|| {{sho}} | |- |Massachusetts Book Award |Fiction |{{Sho|Honor}} | |- |PEN Open Book Award |—|| {{won}} | |- ! rowspan="2" |2011 | rowspan="2" |''All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost'' |John Gardner Fiction Book Award |—|| {{sho}} | |- |Paterson Fiction Prize |—|| {{sho|Finalist}} | |- !2022 | rowspan="4" |''The Family Chao'' |Heartland Booksellers Award |Fiction|| {{sho|Finalist}} | |- ! rowspan="3" |2023 |Anisfield-Wolf Book Award |Fiction|| {{won}} | |- |Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize |—|| {{nom|Longlisted}} | |- |W LA Outstanding Achievement Award |Fiction|| {{won}} | |}

=== Honors === * 1993: Stegner Fellowship, Stanford University * 1998: National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Writing Fellowship in Prose * 1998: Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award * 1999: Alfred Hodder Fellow, Princeton University * 2000: Radcliffe Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University * 2008: Guggenheim Fellowship * 2015: American Library in Paris Visiting Fellowship * 2016: Doctor of Humane Letters, Lawrence University * 2021: Berlin Prize Fellow, American Academy in Berlin * 2024: Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters * 2024: MacDowell Fellowship

== Works ==

===Novels=== * ''Hunger'' (W. W. Norton & Company, 1998) *''Inheritance: A Novel'' (W. W. Norton & Company, 2005)<ref>{{cite web |title=Inheritance: A Novel |url=https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393327113/about-the-book/product-details |website=wwnorton.com }} Retrieved April 19, 2026.</ref> *''All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost: A Novel'' (W. W. Norton & Company, 2010) *''The Family Chao'' (W. W. Norton & Company, 2022)

===Short stories=== * "Pipa's Story", ''The Atlantic Monthly'', August, 1993 and ''The Best American Short Stories'' 1994 * "New House", ''Greensboro Review'' 57 (1994–95); Fish Stories: Collective I Honorable Mention for Fiction, Greensboro Review Literary Awards Distinguished Story of 1995, ''The Best American Short Stories'' * "The Eve of the Spirit Festival", ''Prairie Schooner'' 69:1 (1995) Prairie Schooner Readers' Choice Award for Fiction ''The Best American Short Stories'' 1996 * "A Dream of Western Music", Stanford Today 1:1 (1996) Distinguished Story of 1997, ''The Best American Short Stories'' * "San", ''Story'' 44:1 (1996) Distinguished Story of 1997, ''The Best American Short Stories'' Special Mention, Pushcart Prize, 1998 * "A Genealogy of Longing", ''Story'' 47:4 (1999) Distinguished Story of 2000, ''The Best American Short Stories'' * "The Cottage", Freeman's, Grove Atlantic, (2018) Distinguished Story of 2018, ''The Best American Short Stories''

===Selected nonfiction=== * "Pass the Turkey. And the Stir-Fry",<ref>{{Cite news|last=Chang|first=Lan Samantha|date=November 26, 1998|title=Opinion {{!}} Pass the Turkey. And the Stir-Fry. (Published 1998)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/26/opinion/pass-the-turkey-and-the-stir-fry.html|access-date=2020-10-19|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> ''The New York Times'', November 26, 1998 * "And Iowa Now",<ref>{{Cite news|last=Chang|first=Lan Samantha|date=January 3, 2008|title=Opinion {{!}} ... And Iowa Now (Published 2008)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/opinion/03chang.html|access-date=2020-10-19|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> ''The New York Times'', January 3, 2008 * "Volvos from Florida",<ref>{{Cite news|last=Chang|first=Lan Samantha|date=March 7, 2009|title=Opinion {{!}} Volvos From Florida (Published 2009)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/opinion/08chang.html|access-date=2020-10-19|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> ''The New York Times'', March 7, 2009 * "Writers, Protect Your Inner Life",<ref>{{Cite web|last=Chang|first=Lan Samantha |date=August 7, 2017|title=Writers, Protect Your Inner Life|url=https://lithub.com/writers-protect-your-inner-life/|access-date=2020-10-19|website=Literary Hub|language=en-US}}</ref> ''Literary Hub'', August 7, 2017

== See also == {{Portal|Literature}} *List of Asian-American writers *''Yale Daily News'' *Iowa Writers' Workshop

== References == {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20030828183445/http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/LITLINKS/fiction/chang.htm Short biography and interview] (archived 2003)

== Further reading == *Jonathan Freedman. "Transgressions of a Model Minority." ''Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies'', 2005 Summer; 23 (4): 69–97. *Hetty Lanier Keaton. ''Feeding Hungry Ghosts: Food, Family, and Desire in Stories by Contemporary Chinese American Women.'' Dissertation Abstracts International, Section A: The Humanities and Social Sciences, 2002 July; 63 (1): 187–88. U of Tulsa, 2002.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chang, Lan Samantha}} Category:1965 births Category:Living people Category:American writers of Chinese descent Category:Harvard Kennedy School alumni Category:Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Category:Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award winners Category:Stanford University alumni Category:University of Iowa alumni Category:University of Iowa faculty Category:Writers from Appleton, Wisconsin Category:Yale College alumni Category:American writers of Taiwanese descent Category:American people of Taiwanese descent Category:American women writers of Asian descent