R F Kuang: Author Profile and Biography
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R F Kuang, author of the Poppy War Trilogy, Babel: An Arcane History, and others, is a New York Times bestselling author like no other.
Biography
Rebecca F Kuang is a New York Times bestselling author and is perhaps best known for her Poppy War Trilogy. The Poppy War Trilogy was a smash hit, drawing on her extensive experience and knowledge of Chinese history to create one of the most compelling fantasy books of the decade.
Early Life
Born May 29, 1996 in Guangzhou, China, Rebecca F Kuang migrated with her family to the United States of America when she was just four years old. Her maternal grandfather fought for Chinese revolutionary, politician, and military leader Chiang Kai-shek.
R F Kuang grew up in Dallas, Texas and attended the prestigious Georgetown University. It was during a gap year in China from Georgetown that Kuang wrote The Poppy War Trilogy.
Education and Academia
A Marshall Scholar at Magdalene College, Kuang obtained a Master of Philosophy in Chinese Studies, and the following year studied at University College, Oxford, to receive her MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies.
And all of this after graduating from the School of Foreign Service at the prestigious Georgetown University. Kuang’s academic endeavors continue as she is pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale University.
Kuang goes from strength to strength as she tours some of the world’s most prestigious and well-regarded academic institutions, an experience which few of her contemporaries in the world of fantasy can claim.
Profile
R F Kuang’s Fantasy Books
Kuang’s background in contemporary Chinese studies, East Asian languages, and her history of excellence in academia give her unique insights which gives her writing unparalleled flair and depth. Kuang is an author who manages to blend important and deep themes into a digestible, entertaining story that never fails to be an absolute joy to read.
The Poppy War Trilogy
Not content to take the academic world by storm, Kuang wrote and later published the fantastic Poppy War Trilogy while still a student, drawing on her studies and her lived experience of China to produce an award winning story rooted in real world history and culture while still being fantastic in every sense of the word.
RELATED: The Poppy War Review
The exciting and at times dark Poppy War Trilogy unfurls in a heavily fictionalised, fantasy version of China, making excellent use of Kuang’s deep knowledge of Chinese studies and culture.
The Poppy War released in 2018, followed by its sequel, The Dragon Republic in 2019, and exciting series climax The Burning God released in 2020 in what were three excellent years for fans of fantasy everywhere.
Babel: An Arcane History
Other authors may have decided to take a little break especially given her other commitments such as her studies at Oxford, as a Marshall Scholar at Cambridge, and later Yale. But Kuang found time amongst all that to write Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution which debuted in the first spot of the New York Times Best Seller list.
Set in a fictionalised and fantastic version of Victorian era Oxford, Babel: An Arcane History managed to feel personal and intimate while being a critique of academic practices past and present, all wrapped up into a great package filled with the writing one expects from an award winning bestselling author.
Babel draws not only on Kuang’s substantial knowledge of East Asian languages and Chinese culture, but her deep experience of academia at the very highest levels, to produce a fantasy novel unlike any other. So it was no surprise at all when Babel: An Arcane History became a multiple award winning novel.
Babel is an intelligent, thought-provoking fantasy novel almost without peer.
Yellowface
In a departure from her fantasy works, Kuang published Yellowface, a piece of literary fiction inspired by the practice of yellowface in visual media in which white actors are used to portray Asian characters. In 2023 Yellowface debuted at eighth place on the Los Angeles Times best seller list for hardcover fiction.
Katabasis
Kuang’s upcoming novel Katabasis has been described by the author herself as a piece of ‘nonsense literature.’ The novel no doubt draws on her own experience as a PhD student, being the fantasy tale of two PhD students on a journey to literal Hell in order to receive a good reference from their supervisors.
It seems absolutely clear that R F Kuang is here to stay, a writer almost without peer whose works sit in a great space all their own.
