Maxine Hong Kingston Early life Maxine Hong Kingston

Maxine Hong Kingston

Early life Maxine Hong Kingston was born on October 27, 1940 in Stockton, California. Her parents, Tom and Ying Lan Hong, were Chinese immigrants; and she was the third of eight children. Kingston attended Edison High School and around this time she began writing. Her first published work appeared in the Girl Scouts’ magazine, The American Girl, after she won a five dollar price for an essay she wrote titled “I Am an American. ” Kingston earned a bachelor’s degree in 1962 for the University of California, Berkeley. Not long after, she married her husband Earll Kingston and began a high school teaching career. After moving to Hawaii in 1967, Maxine went back to writing and finished and published her first book titled, The Woman Warrior: Memoir of a Girlhood Among Ghosts in 1976.

Maxine Hong Kingston and Earll Kingston

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts is a collection of memoirs which blends autobiography with old Chinese folktales. The Woman Warrior created a worldwide sensation in 1976 and propelled Kingston as one of the leading contemporary Chinese-American writers. According to the Modern Language Association, The Woman Warrior has been reported as the most commonly taught text in modern university education. It has been used in many disciplines such as American literature, anthropology, Asian studies, psychology, sociology and women’s studies. Readers and critics alike were enthralled by this the book and it would go on to win the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction in 1976 and was named one of TIME magazine’s top nonfiction books of the 1970 s.

The Woman Warrior

China Men ● Maxine’s other big work was China Men which she wrote in 1980. China Men was a collection of “stories, ” some true and some fictional. Kingston wrote China Men and The Woman Warrior as one and wanted them to be read together, but she decided to publish them separately because she didn’t want the men’s stories to weaken the feminist perspective of the female stories. ● China Men was a sequel to The Woman Warrior, and it focused on the history of the men in Kingston’s family. It would go on to win 1981 National Book Award for Nonfiction

China Men

Other Works ● In addition two her two bigger works, Kingston wrote two novels: Tripmaster Monkey, His Fake Book (1989) and Hawaii One Summer (1998). More recently, she returned to making autobiographical works with The Fifth Book of Peace (2003). ● The Fifth Book of Peace talks about Kingston’s experiences in the 1990 s which include her California home burning to the ground, destroying her latest novel in the process. Readers follow along as she tries to rebuild her life and retell her story. ● In 2006, she edited a collection of nonfiction pieces from people affected by war in Veterans of War and Veterans of Peace. ● In 2011, she published I Love a Broad Margin to My Life

Accolades ● During her career, Maxine Hong Kingston has received many of which include: ○ The National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction ○ The John Dos Passos Prize for Literature ○ The PEN West Award for Fiction ○ Two National Endowment for the Arts Writers Awards ○ An American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature ○ A National Humanities Medal ● In 2013, she received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama ● She has been married to Earll Kingston since 1962, and she has one son named Joseph.

Maxine Hong Kingston and President Obama

Quote by Maxine Hong Kingston

Works Cited "China Men. " Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Apr. 2017. Web. 17 Apr. 2017. "Maxine Hong Kingston. " Biography. com. A&E Networks Television, 27 Oct. 2016. Web. 17 Apr. 2017. "Maxine Hong Kingston. " Literary Arts. N. p. , n. d. Web. 17 Apr. 2017. "Maxine Hong Kingston Quote. " A-Z Quotes. N. p. , n. d. Web. 17 Apr. 2017. "Maxine Hong Kingston. " Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Apr. 2017. Web. 17 Apr. 2017. "The Woman Warrior. " Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Apr. 2017. Web. 17 Apr. 2017.