about
M Lin is a Chinese writer living in the US. Born and raised in Beijing, she writes in English as her second language; her mother tongue is Mandarin, which she favors in speech. Her first book, The Memory Museum, is published by Graywolf Press in April 2026.
Her work has been published in Ploughshares, Electric Literature, swamp pink, Joyland, Epiphany, Fence, and Best Debut Short Stories 2023 (Catapult). Her nonfiction can be read in The New York Times, Guernica, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. Her translation appears in Harper’s Bazaar China, Words Without Borders, and Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s The Margins.
M holds an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College and a BFA in Film from New York University. An amateur pianist and a certified yoga teacher, she lives in New York with her partner and two furry children, Lisbon and Rothko.
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M Lin是生长于北京的英文写作者和译者，现居纽约。她的首部短篇小说集《记忆博物馆》于2026年4月由Graywolf Press出版。
short fiction
Yulan, “Recommended Reading” by Electric Literature
野火烧不尽 / no prairie fire can destroy all the weeds, Ploughshares
LUCY, Fence
Shangri-La, swamp pink
You Won’t Read This In The News, Joyland
Magic, or Something Less Assuring, Epiphany, anthologized in Best Debut Short Stories 2023
nonfiction
My Chinese Generation Is Losing the Ability to Express Itself, The New York Times
Just Another Day series, Cha: an Asian Literary Journal
artist interview: Josh Kline, Guernica
conversation with Gen Del Raye, 128 LIT
author interview: Lu Yinyin, Harper’s Bazaar China
translation
The Sun Setting Over the Hills, Harper’s Bazaar China
Gynecological Ultrasound Report, Words Without Borders
Twenty-Seven Years Later, The Margins
events
August 2026
2026 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference | August 12-22
July 2026
2026 Poets and Writers “First Fiction” reading, virtual event | July 23, 7PM
June 2026
Franklin Park Reading Series, Brooklyn, NY | June 22, 8PM
Accent Sisters Bookstore, New York, NY | June 28, 3PM | with hosts of Cyberpink (中文活动)
May 2026
Crystal Ballroom, Hotel Shattuck Plaza, Berkeley, CA | May 31, 1:30PM | Bay Area Book Festival
Writing Workshop: Feminist Memories, Wannv Standup and Unbound Bookstore, San Francisco
Past Events
Women and Children First, Chicago, IL | May 3, 6:30PM | with Ananda Lima
Brookline Booksmith, Boston, MA | May 5th, 7PM | with Gish Jen
Skylight Books, Los Angeles, CA | May 7, 2026, 7PM | with Xuan Juliana Wang
Silver Lake Reading Club, Los Angeles, CA | May 9, 2026, 5PM
Unbound Books 格外书店, San Francisco, CA | May 10, 6PM| with Weijia Pan (in Mandarin, 中文活动)
City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco, CA | May 12, 7PM | with R.O. Kwon
Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, WA | May 14, 7PM | with Larry Guo
White Whale Bookstore, Pittsburgh, PA | May 16, 7PM | with Robert Yune
Riffraff Bookstore, Providence, RI | May 22nd, 6PM | with Jacinda Townsend
press
Writing from the Chinese Diaspora and Against Self-Censorship: A Conversation with M Lin, The Rumpus
On Working Through Discomfort: Interview with Amy Y.Q. Lin, The Creative Independent
M Lin with James Yu: Interview, The Brooklyn Rail
The Art of the Untranslatable: An Interview with M Lin, Chicago Review of Books
Imagine What’s Missing: An Interview with M Lin, Epiphany Magazine
An Interview with M Lin about The Memory Museum, swamp pink
M Lin’s The Memory Museum Sits at the Intersection of the Political and the Personal
The Most Anticipated Debut Books of 2026, Debutiful
awards
fiction winner, 2023 Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Contest, judged by Gish Jen
2023 swamp pink Fiction Prize, judged by Jamil Jai Kochai
2023 PEN / Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers
2022 Breakout Writers Prize, judged by Nadia Owusu
fellowships
Fellowship in Fiction, 2026 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference
Tennessee Williams Scholar, 2024 Sewanee Writers Conference
Katharine Bakeless Nason Contributor Award, 2023 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference
2023 Fellow, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA)
2023 Fellow, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts
2023 Fellow, Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts
teaching
Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop
contact
you can reach M at m [at] m-lin [dot] com (欢迎中文来信)
you can reach M’s agent, Meredith Kaffel Simonoff, at msimonoff [at] thegernertco [dot] com
for publicity inquires regarding The Memory Museum, please contact Caelan Ernest Nardone at nardone [at] graywolfpress [dot] org
Instagram: @the_memory_museum
if you would like to get updates about M’s writing, please kindly leave your email address below.
