Reposted by Yiyun Li
Do your ideas form themselves in your head or on the page? ‘On the page. Ideas in one’s head are like beautiful fish in the water.’
Twenty Questions with Yiyun Li
Twenty Questions with Yiyun Li
Twenty Questions with Yiyun Li
www.the-tls.com
October 30, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Do your ideas form themselves in your head or on the page? ‘On the page. Ideas in one’s head are like beautiful fish in the water.’
Twenty Questions with Yiyun Li
Twenty Questions with Yiyun Li
Reposted by Yiyun Li
Princeton's Yiyun Li (@appletwigli.bsky.social) has been named Princeton University’s Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities, an appointment first held by Professor of Creative Writing, Emerita, Toni Morrison.
Yiyun Li Named Princeton University’s Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities
Creative writing professor Yiyun Li has been named the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities at Princeton University.
arts.princeton.edu
October 30, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Princeton's Yiyun Li (@appletwigli.bsky.social) has been named Princeton University’s Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities, an appointment first held by Professor of Creative Writing, Emerita, Toni Morrison.
Reposted by Yiyun Li
4. BOOK - Duel Duet: Selected Stories by Graham Greene, edited by @appletwigli.bsky.social
‘This ingenious collection places Greene’s stories in pairs – to be read, as the title suggests, not merely in conversation, but also in opposition and in concert’
‘This ingenious collection places Greene’s stories in pairs – to be read, as the title suggests, not merely in conversation, but also in opposition and in concert’
October 17, 2025 at 3:55 PM
4. BOOK - Duel Duet: Selected Stories by Graham Greene, edited by @appletwigli.bsky.social
‘This ingenious collection places Greene’s stories in pairs – to be read, as the title suggests, not merely in conversation, but also in opposition and in concert’
‘This ingenious collection places Greene’s stories in pairs – to be read, as the title suggests, not merely in conversation, but also in opposition and in concert’
Reposted by Yiyun Li
Congratulations to Princeton professors @poetpatriciasmith.bsky.social and @appletwigli.bsky.social and alumna @juliaioffe.bsky.social '05 who were named finalists for National Book Awards this week.
2025 National Book Awards Finalists Announced
Twenty-five Finalists to contend for National Book Awards in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature
www.nationalbook.org
October 8, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Congratulations to Princeton professors @poetpatriciasmith.bsky.social and @appletwigli.bsky.social and alumna @juliaioffe.bsky.social '05 who were named finalists for National Book Awards this week.
Reposted by Yiyun Li
“The adjectives which really suited grown-ups were ‘lily-livered’ and ‘chicken-hearted.’"
--Mary in Rebecca West's The Fountain Overflows (more recently encountered by me in @appletwigli.bsky.social's story "Any Human Heart")
--Mary in Rebecca West's The Fountain Overflows (more recently encountered by me in @appletwigli.bsky.social's story "Any Human Heart")
August 26, 2025 at 12:25 PM
“The adjectives which really suited grown-ups were ‘lily-livered’ and ‘chicken-hearted.’"
--Mary in Rebecca West's The Fountain Overflows (more recently encountered by me in @appletwigli.bsky.social's story "Any Human Heart")
--Mary in Rebecca West's The Fountain Overflows (more recently encountered by me in @appletwigli.bsky.social's story "Any Human Heart")
Reposted by Yiyun Li
Reposted by Yiyun Li
“Two moments in Graham Greene’s published life have often returned to me in the past twenty years. This may sound strange: an ideal reader should refrain from crossing the boundary between a writer’s work and his life.”
Yiyun Li on Graham Greene. buff.ly/M9gqQF9
Yiyun Li on Graham Greene. buff.ly/M9gqQF9
August 6, 2025 at 3:06 PM
“Two moments in Graham Greene’s published life have often returned to me in the past twenty years. This may sound strange: an ideal reader should refrain from crossing the boundary between a writer’s work and his life.”
Yiyun Li on Graham Greene. buff.ly/M9gqQF9
Yiyun Li on Graham Greene. buff.ly/M9gqQF9
Reposted by Yiyun Li
"The humanities tell us who we are. Without them, we're automata." Edward Carey, Celsius 232 Festival, Avilés, Spain.
July 17, 2025 at 11:04 AM
"The humanities tell us who we are. Without them, we're automata." Edward Carey, Celsius 232 Festival, Avilés, Spain.
Reposted by Yiyun Li
Reading Yiyun Li’s latest memoir “Things in Nature Merely Grow,” Ali Moss reflects on her responsibilities and limitations as a parent.
electricliterature.com/yiyun-lis-la...
electricliterature.com/yiyun-lis-la...
Yiyun Li’s Latest Memoir Illuminates My Responsibilities and Limitations as a Parent - Electric Literature
As the mother of a trans child and the daughter of a man who died by suicide, “Things in Nature Merely Grow” pulled me in like a black hole
electricliterature.com
July 8, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Reading Yiyun Li’s latest memoir “Things in Nature Merely Grow,” Ali Moss reflects on her responsibilities and limitations as a parent.
electricliterature.com/yiyun-lis-la...
electricliterature.com/yiyun-lis-la...
Reposted by Yiyun Li
“There is no redemption arc in ‘Things in Nature Merely Grow,’ no arrival at a deeper meaning of life after the tragedies of Vincent and James’s suicides.” Jenessa Abrams reviews Yiyun Li’s "Things in Nature Merely Grow." https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/children-die-and-parents-go-on-living/
July 5, 2025 at 12:50 PM
“There is no redemption arc in ‘Things in Nature Merely Grow,’ no arrival at a deeper meaning of life after the tragedies of Vincent and James’s suicides.” Jenessa Abrams reviews Yiyun Li’s "Things in Nature Merely Grow." https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/children-die-and-parents-go-on-living/
Reposted by Yiyun Li
“Fortunately, fiction allows one the space to complicate matters and dispel the innocence of any image.” Yiyun Li discusses her short story “Any Human Heart.”
Yiyun Li on Dispelling Innocence and Dissecting Pears
The author discusses her story “Any Human Heart.”
www.newyorker.com
June 15, 2025 at 8:21 PM
“Fortunately, fiction allows one the space to complicate matters and dispel the innocence of any image.” Yiyun Li discusses her short story “Any Human Heart.”
Reposted by Yiyun Li
“And here sat Maureen, who had no one else to send flowers to as sweet revenge. And here sat Lilian, who had thought that little in life could surprise her anymore.” Read a new short story by Yiyun Li.
“Any Human Heart,” by Yiyun Li
And here sat Maureen, who had no one else to send flowers to as sweet revenge. And here sat Lilian, who had thought that little in life could surprise her anymore.
www.newyorker.com
June 15, 2025 at 7:04 PM
“And here sat Maureen, who had no one else to send flowers to as sweet revenge. And here sat Lilian, who had thought that little in life could surprise her anymore.” Read a new short story by Yiyun Li.
Reposted by Yiyun Li
“Not calling a fact by its name can be the beginning of cruelty and injustice.” —Yiyun Li #SundaySentence
June 15, 2025 at 11:32 AM
“Not calling a fact by its name can be the beginning of cruelty and injustice.” —Yiyun Li #SundaySentence
Reposted by Yiyun Li
Reposted by Yiyun Li
“We both took pleasure in being irrelevant and irreverent and unflappable.”
Today in TYR, Yiyun Li pays tribute to her friend, the late Edmund White.
Today in TYR, Yiyun Li pays tribute to her friend, the late Edmund White.
yalereview.org
June 6, 2025 at 12:06 PM
“We both took pleasure in being irrelevant and irreverent and unflappable.”
Today in TYR, Yiyun Li pays tribute to her friend, the late Edmund White.
Today in TYR, Yiyun Li pays tribute to her friend, the late Edmund White.
Reposted by Yiyun Li
The latest book by @appletwigli.bsky.social absolutely devastated me with its beauty and grace so I wrote about it for @washingtonpost.com
www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...
www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...
Review | A mother pays tribute to the sons she lost
In her memoir “Things in Nature Merely Grow,” Yiyun Li tries to honor the lives, and accept the unfathomable deaths, of her two sons.
www.washingtonpost.com
June 6, 2025 at 3:58 AM
The latest book by @appletwigli.bsky.social absolutely devastated me with its beauty and grace so I wrote about it for @washingtonpost.com
www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...
www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...
Reposted by Yiyun Li
From @appletwigli.bsky.social 's story collection Wednesday's Child: Perhaps grief was the recognition of having run out of illusions. #SundaySentence #Booksky
June 1, 2025 at 1:47 PM
From @appletwigli.bsky.social 's story collection Wednesday's Child: Perhaps grief was the recognition of having run out of illusions. #SundaySentence #Booksky
Reposted by Yiyun Li
The pain of this book, and its immense beauty @appletwigli.bsky.social 💚
May 31, 2025 at 6:30 PM
The pain of this book, and its immense beauty @appletwigli.bsky.social 💚
Reposted by Yiyun Li
I just finished Things in Nature Merely Grow by @appletwigli.bsky.social and am disrupted, moved, challenged in ways I did not expect. I write a lot about grief and..... will be carrying this magnificent book and its refusal of grief inside me for a long time ahead. #Booksky
May 28, 2025 at 4:55 PM
I just finished Things in Nature Merely Grow by @appletwigli.bsky.social and am disrupted, moved, challenged in ways I did not expect. I write a lot about grief and..... will be carrying this magnificent book and its refusal of grief inside me for a long time ahead. #Booksky
Reposted by Yiyun Li
“I’ve been on this crusade against metaphor for years,” Yiyun Li tells Manjula Martin in this conversation. “I think metaphors are not helpful when you are writing about things that are very hard to tackle.”
For garden lovers, metaphor haters, and those learning to accept grief.
For garden lovers, metaphor haters, and those learning to accept grief.
Sometimes a Rose Is Just a Rose
A conversation about gardening, loss, and the end of metaphor
orionmagazine.org
May 25, 2025 at 12:20 PM
“I’ve been on this crusade against metaphor for years,” Yiyun Li tells Manjula Martin in this conversation. “I think metaphors are not helpful when you are writing about things that are very hard to tackle.”
For garden lovers, metaphor haters, and those learning to accept grief.
For garden lovers, metaphor haters, and those learning to accept grief.
Reposted by Yiyun Li
A longish post. I don’t think I’ve ever read a more truthful book – and nor, therefore, a more humane book than Things in Nature Merely Grow. Yiyun Li’s philosophical and psychic reckoning with the loss of both her sons is soaked in what Graham Greene once referred to as ‘the dignity of despair’. >
May 18, 2025 at 5:48 AM
A longish post. I don’t think I’ve ever read a more truthful book – and nor, therefore, a more humane book than Things in Nature Merely Grow. Yiyun Li’s philosophical and psychic reckoning with the loss of both her sons is soaked in what Graham Greene once referred to as ‘the dignity of despair’. >
Reposted by Yiyun Li
uncommon grace, yes 💚
thank you @appletwigli.bsky.social for writing Things in Nature Merely Grow, which will be out Tuesday
thank you @appletwigli.bsky.social for writing Things in Nature Merely Grow, which will be out Tuesday
All the love to @appletwigli.bsky.social, who has written a book of staggering heartbreak and uncommon grace.
‘I Don’t Ever Want to Be Free From the Pain of Missing My Children’
www.nytimes.com
May 16, 2025 at 6:02 PM
uncommon grace, yes 💚
thank you @appletwigli.bsky.social for writing Things in Nature Merely Grow, which will be out Tuesday
thank you @appletwigli.bsky.social for writing Things in Nature Merely Grow, which will be out Tuesday
Reposted by Yiyun Li
This. Again and again. No one has written the heart like @appletwigli.bsky.social— her words are foundational for me, as a writer, a human, and a mother. Always.
All the love to @appletwigli.bsky.social, who has written a book of staggering heartbreak and uncommon grace.
‘I Don’t Ever Want to Be Free From the Pain of Missing My Children’
www.nytimes.com
May 16, 2025 at 6:24 PM
This. Again and again. No one has written the heart like @appletwigli.bsky.social— her words are foundational for me, as a writer, a human, and a mother. Always.
Reposted by Yiyun Li
All the love to @appletwigli.bsky.social, who has written a book of staggering heartbreak and uncommon grace.
‘I Don’t Ever Want to Be Free From the Pain of Missing My Children’
www.nytimes.com
May 16, 2025 at 5:53 PM
All the love to @appletwigli.bsky.social, who has written a book of staggering heartbreak and uncommon grace.