Ling Ma

{{Infobox academic

| name = Ling Ma

| image = LMa at table (cropped).jpg

| caption = Ma in 2024

| birth_date =

| birth_place = Sanming, Fujian, China

| death_date =

| death_place =

| other_names =

| known_for = Severance

| occupation = Writer, professor

| education = University of Chicago (AB)
Cornell University (MFA)

| workplaces = University of Chicago

| awards = Kirkus Prize; Windham-Campbell Literature Prize; Story Prize

}}

Ling Ma is a Chinese American novelist and professor at the University of Chicago. Her first book, Severance (2018), won a 2018 Kirkus Prize and was listed as a New York Times Notable Book of 2018{{cite web | title=2018 Finalists | website=Kirkus Reviews | date=2016-11-11 | url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/prize/2018/finalists/ | access-date=2019-01-22 | archive-date=2019-01-10 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190110215103/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/prize/2018/finalists/ | url-status=dead }} and shortlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award.{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/2019finalists/|title=Announcing the 2019 PEN America Literary Awards Finalists|date=2019-01-15|website=PEN America|access-date=2019-02-23|archive-date=2019-10-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191030134810/https://pen.org/2019finalists/|url-status=live}} Her second book, Bliss Montage (2022), won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and The Story Prize.{{cite web|date=January 10, 2023|title=Here Are This Year's Finalists for the Story Prize|url=https://lithub.com/here-are-this-years-finalists-for-the-story-prize-3/|work=LitHub|access-date=April 27, 2024|archive-date=April 5, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240405134529/https://lithub.com/here-are-this-years-finalists-for-the-story-prize-3/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|date=March 15, 2023|title=Ling Ma's 'Bliss Montage' wins $20,000 Story Prize|url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ling-mas-bliss-montage-wins-20000-story-prize-97897987|work=ABC News|access-date=April 27, 2024|archive-date=March 21, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230321030512/https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ling-mas-bliss-montage-wins-20000-story-prize-97897987|url-status=live}} She is a 2024 MacArthur Fellow.{{cite news |last1=Blair |first1=Elizabeth |title=Here's who made the 2024 MacArthur Fellows list |url=https://www.npr.org/2024/10/01/nx-s1-5131324/2024-macarthur-fellows|access-date=1 October 2024 |publisher=NPR |date=1 October 2024}}

Early life

Ma was born in Sanming, Fujian, China,{{cite web|url=https://lingma.tumblr.com/bio|title=Bio|last=Ma|first=Ling|website=Tumblr|access-date=2019-01-23|archive-date=2018-12-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181218215423/http://lingma.tumblr.com/bio|url-status=live}} initially an only child because of China's "one-child policy."{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2018/08/10/637473748/in-satirical-severance-a-stricken-country-works-itself-to-death|title=In Satirical 'Severance,' A Stricken Country Works Itself To Death|last=Shapiro|first=Ari|date=2018-08-10|website=NPR.org|access-date=2019-01-23|archive-date=2019-01-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190116102141/https://www.npr.org/2018/08/10/637473748/in-satirical-severance-a-stricken-country-works-itself-to-death|url-status=live}} She grew up in Utah, Nebraska, and Kansas. She has an AB from the University of Chicago and received an MFA from Cornell University.{{cite web |title=People: Ling Ma |url=https://english.uchicago.edu/people/ling-ma |publisher=University of Chicago, Division of the Humanities |access-date=2022-09-10 |archive-date=2022-09-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220910195504/https://english.uchicago.edu/people/ling-ma |url-status=dead }}

Career

Ma's debut novel, Severance, is described as "a biting indictment of late-stage capitalism and a chilling vision of what comes after, but that doesn’t mean it’s a Marxist screed or a dry Hobbesian thought experiment."{{Cite book|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ling-ma/severance-ma/?fb_comment_id=2206427286034399_2719769161366873|title=SEVERANCE by Ling Ma {{!}} Kirkus Reviews|language=en|access-date=2019-06-29|archive-date=2023-04-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405153602/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ling-ma/severance-ma/?fb_comment_id=2206427286034399_2719769161366873|url-status=live}} Severance is a novel that is partially post-apocalyptic horror, and partially office satire. It follows the novel's narrator in the aftermath of the outbreak of a deadly fever that has killed almost everyone in the US.{{Cite web|url=https://electricliterature.com/severance-is-the-apocalyptic-millennial-new-york-immigrant-story-you-didnt-know-you-needed/|title='Severance' Is the Apocalyptic Millennial New York Immigrant Story You Didn't Know You Needed|date=2018-08-14|website=Electric Literature|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-15|archive-date=2019-07-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190715051354/https://electricliterature.com/severance-is-the-apocalyptic-millennial-new-york-immigrant-story-you-didnt-know-you-needed/|url-status=live}} An earlier chapter from the book won a 2015 Disquiet Literary Prize, the Graywolf Prize.{{cite web | title=Finalist winners 2015 | website=Disquiet International | url=http://disquietinternational.org/the-program/contests-scholarships/finalist-winners/2015-2/ | access-date=2019-01-22 | archive-date=2019-01-23 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190123225345/http://disquietinternational.org/the-program/contests-scholarships/finalist-winners/2015-2/ | url-status=live }}

Ma began the novel while working as a fact checker for Playboy, a job she held from 2009 to 2012.{{cite web | last=Ma | first=Ling | title=Crying At The Playboy Office | website=BuzzFeed News | date=2018-08-10 | url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/lingma/crying-at-the-playboy-office | access-date=2019-01-23 | archive-date=2019-01-23 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190123223616/https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/lingma/crying-at-the-playboy-office | url-status=live }} It began as a short story, written in her office during her last few months there; after her layoff, it became a novel which she wrote while living on severance pay.{{cite magazine | title=Ling Ma's "Severance" Captures the Bleak, Fatalistic Mood of 2018 | last=Fan | first=Jiayang | magazine=The New Yorker | url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/ling-ma-severance-captures-the-bleak-fatalistic-mood-of-2018 | date=December 10, 2018 | access-date=2019-01-23 | archive-date=2019-01-23 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190123223211/https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/ling-ma-severance-captures-the-bleak-fatalistic-mood-of-2018 | url-status=live }} She took four years to write it,{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc-ling-ma-20180824-story.html|title='Office politics is, to some degree, horrifying' - Ling Ma on her horror-satire 'Severance'|last=Schaub|first=Michael|website=Los Angeles Times|date=24 August 2018|access-date=2019-07-15|archive-date=2019-07-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190715085148/https://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc-ling-ma-20180824-story.html|url-status=live}} and finished the novel at Cornell as part of the work in her MFA program.{{cite web | last=Morgan | first=Adam | title=In 'Severance,' Ling Ma Destroys New York City | website=Chicago Review of Books | date=2018-08-14 | url=https://chireviewofbooks.com/2018/08/14/severance-ling-ma-interview/ | access-date=2019-01-23 | archive-date=2019-01-23 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190123223537/https://chireviewofbooks.com/2018/08/14/severance-ling-ma-interview/ | url-status=live }} Ma said she "felt pressured to write a traditional immigration novel" while in the MFA program at Cornell, but instead decided to write about otherness and alienation via the trope of zombie apocalypse.{{cite web | last=Borrelli | first=Christopher | title=Chicago author Ling Ma never thought she'd write a zombie apocalypse novel. Here's what changed her mind. | website=chicagotribune.com | date=2019-01-15 | url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/ct-ent-ling-ma-0116-story.html | access-date=2019-01-23 | archive-date=2019-01-22 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190122180121/https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/ct-ent-ling-ma-0116-story.html | url-status=live }}

Ma has also published short stories in Granta, Playboy, and the Chicago Reader.Day, Madeline (2018-08-22). "[https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/08/22/apocalyptic-office-novel-an-interview-with-ling-ma/ Apocalyptic Office Novel: An Interview with Ling Ma] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190123223227/https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/08/22/apocalyptic-office-novel-an-interview-with-ling-ma/ |date=2019-01-23 }}". The Paris Review. Retrieved 2019-01-23. Ma's short story "Peking Duck" appears in the 2022 The New Yorker Fiction Issue.{{Cite magazine |date=2022-06-29 |title="Peking Duck" |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/11/peking-duck |access-date=2022-07-20 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |archive-date=2022-07-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220720225436/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/11/peking-duck |url-status=live }} Her first collection of short stories, Bliss Montage, was published in September 2022.{{cite magazine | title=Ling Ma on Writers and Their Parents | last=Leyshon | first=Cressida | magazine=The New Yorker | url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/this-week-in-fiction/ling-ma-07-11-22 | date=July 4, 2022 | access-date=2022-07-18 | archive-date=2022-07-20 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220720201816/https://www.newyorker.com/books/this-week-in-fiction/ling-ma-07-11-22 | url-status=live }} The collection won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction.{{Cite news |last=Varno |first=David |date=2023-02-01 |title=NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE ANNOUNCES FINALISTS FOR PUBLISHING YEAR 2022 - National Book Critics Circle |language=en-US |work=National Book Critics Circle |url=https://www.bookcritics.org/2023/01/31/national-book-critics-circle-announces-finalists-for-publishing-year-2022/ |access-date=2023-02-03 |archive-date=2023-04-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230427222117/https://www.bookcritics.org/2023/01/31/national-book-critics-circle-announces-finalists-for-publishing-year-2022/ |url-status=live }}

She is the recipient of a 2023 Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for Fiction.{{cite web|url=https://windhamcampbell.org/|title=2023 Prize Recipients|website=Windham Campbell Prizes 2023|publisher=Windham Campbell Prizes|access-date=April 21, 2023|archive-date=April 21, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230421201624/https://windhamcampbell.org/|url-status=live}}

Works

=Books=

{{cite book |last=Ma |first=Ling |year=2018 |title=Severance: A Novel |isbn=9780374261597 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux}}
{{cite book |last=Ma |first=Ling |year=2022 |title=Bliss Montage |isbn=9780374293512 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux}}

=Stories=

Year ! Title	Publication	Collected in
class="wikitable sortable"
rowspan=2 \| 2012 \| "The Scientist" \|\| {{cite journal \|title=The Scientist \|journal=Ninth Letter \|volume=17 \|date=Spring–Summer 2012}} \|\| —
"Yeti Lovemaking"	{{cite journal \|title=Yeti Lovemaking \|journal=Unstuck \|volume=2 \|date=2012}}	Bliss Montage
2014 \| "Fuzhou Nighttime Feeling" \|\| {{cite journal \|title=Fuzhou Nighttime Feeling \|url=https://www.texasobserver.org/short-story-winner-ling-ma/ \|journal=The Texas Observer \|date=October 2014}}\|\| from Severance
2015 \| "Los Angeles" \|\| {{cite journal \|title=Los Angeles \|journal=Granta \|issue=132 \|date=Summer 2015}} \|\| rowspan=7\| Bliss Montage
2020 \| "G" \|\| {{cite journal \|title=G \|journal=Zoetrope: All-Story \|volume=24 \|issue=1 \|date=Spring 2020}}
rowspan=5 \| 2022 \| "Office Hours" \|\| {{cite journal \|title=Office Hours \|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2022/05/ling-ma-office-hours-short-story/629852/ \|journal=The Atlantic \|date=May 16, 2022}}
"Tomorrow"	{{cite journal \|title=Tomorrow \|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/268/article/860016/pdf \|journal=Virginia Quarterly Review \|volume=98 \|issue=3 \|url-access=subscription \|date=Summer 2022}}
"Peking Duck"	{{cite journal \|title=Peking Duck \|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/11/peking-duck \|journal=The New Yorker \|date=July 11, 2022}}
"Oranges"	—
"Returning" \|—
2023 \| "Winner" \|\| {{cite journal \|title=Winner \|url=https://yalereview.org/article/ling-ma-winner-short-story \|journal=The Yale Review \|volume=111 \|issue=4 \|date=Winter 2023}}\|\| —