And I couldn’t identify with the standard children’s books because in all of them, the kids lived in houses where the front door was always unlocked and they all had bikes. “In the 1950s when I was growing up, there were no books on being Chinese American. He rode the bus into Chinatown for school, he told Terry Hong in an interview: “Going back and forth between those two ghetto areas is why I got interested science fiction,” he explained.

And, in the last 10 years, Yep has added playwriting to his growing repertoire.īorn in San Francisco, California, on June 14, 1948, Laurence Yep was named by his then-10-year-old brother who later admitted that, being unsure about gaining a sibling, he had named his younger brother after a saint who had died an especially brutal death.Ī third-generation Chinese American, Yep lived in an apartment above his parents’ grocery store in the Western Edition District, a predominantly African American neighborhood of San Francisco. He has written mythology and historical fiction, picture books and short stories, novellas as well as full-length novels. Although he is best known as a science fiction writer, he doesn’t limit himself to one genre.

His audiences include children and adults of all ages. His best-known works include two children’s books, Dragonwings and Dragon’s Gate, both of which were named Newbery Honor books.

Laurence yep facts