A Chat With Lisa Zhang Wharton

When I first came to this country, I felt like landing on a different planet. In San Francisco, my first stop in the US, I saw two giant ladies in hot pink and blue walking down the hill and could not believe how big they were. I was an alien in its true sense. I have so many stories to tell. I want to tell what is like in planet China and how different and similar we are.

Writing found me by no accident.  Before I was 18, I lived a life of misery and tragedy without knowing it.  When I went to college, the renowned Peking University and studied physics, I discovered the literature and realized that I lived a typical writer’s life.  It is my duty to write it down and tell it to the world.  Even today, I still live under such obligation.  In the last two decades, my life has undergone dramatic changes by moving to the United States from Beijing, China, married and had a beautiful son.  I also managed to write at least two book manuscripts and four of my short stories have been published by:

“Paris Transcontinental”
“Salmon Magazine”
“The Great River Review”
“Do You Know Me Now”

Fantasy Island Book Publishing has published my novel “Last Kiss in Tiananmen Square” and my linked short story collection “Chinese Lolita” is forthcoming. In 1992, my short story “My ‘Uncle’” has won the second prize in the WICE short story competition organized by the Paris Writer’s Workshop.