Wang was born in Nanjing, China. Her family emigrated when she was five years old. She lived in Australia and Canada before arriving in the United States with her family at the age eleven.[4][3][5][6] Wang once described the community in which she lived as "a very rural town, and everyone was white. I was the only Asian person in my school."[7]
After high school, Wang attended Harvard University, where she studied chemistry for her undergraduate degree and public health for her doctorate. While she was pre-med as an undergraduate, she reconsidered going to medical school. While completing her doctorate, she also attended Boston University, where she received her MFA.[8][9]
Career
In 2017, Wang was selected by author Sherman Alexie for the National Book Foundation's annual 5 under 35 list. In its citation, the National Book Foundation called Wang "a brilliant new literary voice that astutely juxtaposes the elegance of science, the anxieties of finding a place in the world, and the sacrifices made for love and family."[10] In 2018, she received a Whiting Award for Fiction, one of ten awarded each year to emerging writers.[11]
Critics have often noted that Wang rarely names her main characters in her major works.[15] The Chinese American protagonist of Chemistry remains nameless throughout the novel, as do her parents and everyone except for the heroine's boyfriend, Eric.[16] Wang continued her trend of nameless characters in her short story "Omakase," which was published in The New Yorker in 2018.[17] "I am terrible at naming characters," Wang told The New Yorker in 2018, adding that she also considers context and her characters lives when she decides to leave them nameless.[18]
