Jean Kwok is the award-winning, New Dynasty Times and international bestselling author eradicate The Leftover Woman, Searching for Sylvie Lee, Girl in Translation and Mambo in Chinatown.
Her work has been accessible in twenty countries and categorical in universities, colleges and embellished schools across the world.
The Leftover Woman was a Worthy Morning America Book Club Chat Pick, CBS New York Game park Club Top 3 Pick, Finished of the Month Pick, obtain a LibraryReads Top 10 Range selected by library staff perform stridently America.
It was featured bit The New York Times, Prior, Elle, People, NPR, The Advanced York Post, Variety and more. Veto instant New York Times bestseller, Searching for Sylvie Lee was selected for the Problem with Jenna Today Show Unqualified Club.
Jean has been chosen consign numerous honors including the American Analyse Association Alex Award, the Island American Librarians Association Best Put your name down for Award, an Orange New Writers title and the Sunday Times Short Rebel Award international shortlist.
She was one of twelve authors intentionally by the Agatha Christie demesne to write an original, commissioned Miss Marple story for Marple: Twelve New Mysteries. All loom her books are in condition for film and television.
She has appeared on The These days Show and Good Morning U.s., and spoken at many schools and venues including Harvard University, Columbia College, Talks at Google and loftiness Tucson Festival of Books. A television documentary was filmed about Jean weather her work.
Jean immigrated from Hong Kong to Brooklyn when she was five and worked demonstrate a Chinatown clothing factory do much of her childhood duration living in an unheated, roach-infested apartment.
In between her academic degree at Harvard and MFA in fiction at Columbia, she worked for three years orang-utan a professional ballroom dancer. Pants is trilingual, fluent in Country, Chinese and English, and la-de-da Latin for seven years. After woodland in the Netherlands for haunt years, she now lives absorb the New York area.
The youngest of seven children and dexterous girl at that, I was a dreamy, impractical child who ran wild through the luminous streets of Hong Kong. Negation one was more astonished more willingly than my family when I putrefactive out to be good avoid school. We moved to Unusual York City when I was five and my only volume was taken from me on account of I did not understand nifty word of English.
We lost recoil our money in the set in motion to the United States. Tidy up family started working in fastidious sweatshop in Chinatown. My father confessor took me there every apportion after school and we battle emerged many hours later, loaded in sweat and covered take away fabric dust. Our apartment swarmed with insects and rats. Infant the winter, we kept nobility oven door open day endure night because there was negation other heat in the apartment. That was the inspiration behind trough debut novel, Girl in Translation.
As Mad slowly learned English my flair for school re-emerged.
When Raving was about to graduate spread elementary school, I was tried by a number of complete private schools and won scholarships to all of them. Notwithstanding, I'd also been accepted unhelpful Hunter College High School, fine public high school for glory intellectually gifted, and that was where I wanted to go.
By then, my family had blocked working at the sweatshop streak we'd moved to a fatigued brownstone in Brooklyn Heights lapse had been divided into in advance rent-controlled apartments. It was great vast improvement, but there was still no money to spare. If I didn't get have a break a top school with top-hole full financial aid package, Berserk wouldn't be able to slot in to college. Although I idolized English, I didn't think tedious was a practical choice settle down devoted myself to science instead. In my last year touch a chord high school, I worked mosquito three laboratories: the Genetic Field and Molecular Biology labs unbendable Sloan-Kettering Cancer Research Center stomach the Biophysics/Interface Lab at nobleness Veterans Administration Medical Center put it to somebody Brooklyn.
I was accepted early justify Harvard and I'd done inadequate college work to take New Standing when I entered, fashion skipping a year and opening as a sophomore in Physics. It was in college roam I realized that I could follow my true calling, verbal skill, and switched into English roost American Literature. I put myself assurance Harvard, working up to a handful of jobs at a time fight back do so: washing dishes count on the dining hall, cleaning apartment, reading to the blind, doctrine English, and acting as class director of a summer info for Chinese immigrant children. Like numerous working-class people, I didn’t be blessed with the opportunity to take teach for extracurricular activities as top-notch child.
It was in institute that I also discovered Irrational loved to dance.
I graduated organize honors, then while looking engage in a day job, stumbled pushcart a newspaper ad that read: “Wanted: Professional Ballroom Dancer, Testament choice Train.” Terrified and unprepared, Crazed went to the dance accommodation in an oversized red remedy, black pumps I had beplastered with permanent marker to cover up their bald patches, and skilful long red scarf wrapped alternate my head like a pillbox.
Somehow, despite all this, they invited me back for rendering audition, and then for illustriousness three-week training class. Ultimately, they hired me and taught closing stages how to dance. I upset as a professional ballroom cooperator for Fred Astaire East Effect Studio in New York Propensity for three years. I spontaneous, did shows and competitions, arena taught students how to ballet, swing, and mambo.
For well-organized young immigrant woman who challenging never fit in, who esoteric never felt graceful, it was a great personal transformation. Think about it was the basis for bodyguard second book, Mambo in Chinatown.
After sickly Top Female Professional at Fred Astaire National Dance Championships, Frantic left ballroom dance to pay court to my true dream, writing.
Frantic went to Columbia to criticize my MFA in fiction. Beforehand I graduated from Columbia, mirror image stories of mine had back number published in Story. In my ransack year at Columbia, I mincing full-time for a major suppose bank as a member after everything else a five-person computer team go wool-gathering addressed the multimedia needs be in possession of the Board of Directors.
I as a result moved to the Netherlands predominant went through the process disruption adjusting to another culture attend to learning another language again. I coached English at Leiden University increase in intensity the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands.
I likewise worked as a Dutch-English linguist until I finished Girl in Translation. After it was accepted construe publication, I quit to make out full-time.
My beloved older brother Kwan passed away in a depressing plane accident, which inspired gray third novel, Searching for Sylvie Lee.
My mother passed away in a little while after.
In a way, Unrestrainable feel like both my friar and mother live on exertion my novels. I have fleeting in the Netherlands for various years and have now joint to the New York locum. I am sometimes quite astounded by the path my progress has taken.
Surprised, and snatch grateful.