Biography

 

Leonard Chang was born in New York City, and grew up on Long Island, where he attended the public schools in Merrick. After high school, Leonard studied at Dartmouth College, but took time off after his sophomore year to intern briefly with the Peace Corps in Kingston, Jamaica. He soon returned to the United States, where he continued his studies in Philosophy at Harvard University, and graduated with honors. From there, he attended the graduate creative writing program at the University of California at Irvine, and received his Master's of Fine Arts. His first novel, entitled The Fruit 'N Food, was published in 1996 and won the Black Heron Press Award for Social Fiction that year, and is now taught at colleges around the world. His second novel, Dispatches from the Cold (Black Heron, 1998) won a San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie Award for Literature. He is also the author of a popular and critically-acclaimed noir trilogy, which includes Over the Shoulder (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2001), Underkill (St. Martin's, 2003) and Fade to Clear (St. Martin's, 2004), a USA Today Summer Reading Pick and a finalist for the Shamus Award. His novels have been translated and published in France, Japan and Korea, and recently the U.S. Consulate in Berlin sponsored his multi-city lecture/reading tour of Germany.

In addition to novels, he writes short stories, essays, and book reviews, and his work has appeared in numerous literary journals, including The Crescent Review, Prairie Schooner, Confluence, The Literary Review, Bamboo Ridge, and Lynx Eye. He was the Visiting Distinguished Writer at Mills College from 2001-2003, teaches at Antioch University's MFA Program, and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

 

Web Interviews, Essays and Literary Criticism:

An early interview with Bill Han

AbsoluteWrite Interview

Korean Culture Interview

L.A. Daily News profile

Over the Shoulder Reader's Guide

German PhD Dissertation on Asian American Literature [See Chapter Five, p. 150ff.(Large file)]

Underkill Reader's Guide

"Why I Love Crime Fiction" - an essay

Korean Quarterly Profile

A follow-up interview with Bill Han

Fade to Clear Reader's Guide

San Francisco Chronicle profile

Asian American Times profile

An edited and condensed speech (mpeg audiofile)

An Interview with Calvin McMillin

An Interview with Nichelle Tramble

A few questions with Genie Giaimo

A "Where are they now" profile in the Long Island Herald

A third interview with Bill Han

 

Here's a suggested reading list Leonard gives his writing students.

More author photos