R.F. Kuang

R.F. Kuang (born 1996) is a Chinese-American fantasy writer.
Life
She emigrated to the United States from Guangzhou, China, in 2000. Her debut novel The Poppy War, a Chinese military fantasy, was published by Harper Voyager in 2018 and is the first book in a planned trilogy. The Poppy War has received mainly favorable reviews, with Publishers Weekly calling it "a strong and dramatic launch to Kuang’s career".
The Poppy War
The Poppy War, a grimdark fantasy, draws its plot and politics from mid-20th-century China. Harper Voyager’s editorial director David Pomerico acquired the novel after a heated auction on Kuang’s 20th birthday. The novel centers on a poor orphan Rin who trains in secret to test into the elite Sinegard Academy. Kuang said Rin’s life is meant to parallel the trajectory of Mao Zedong. Grounded in the real-world history of Chinese wars and opium addiction, The Poppy War is a dark and fatalistic tale of warfare. When a conflict surfaces between the Nikara Empire and their neighboring nation, Mugen, Rin is called to the front lines. She must decide whether to make a deal with the gods to unleash her shamanic powers. Her decision may change the war but result in the loss of her humanity.<ref name=":5" /> Kuang wrote The Poppy War while teaching debate in China and graduated with a degree in Chinese History from Georgetown University a few days after its release.<ref name":3" /> Her studies in Chinese military strategy and collective trauma inspired her to write the novel.<ref name":1" /><ref name":4" /> She said, "I chose to write a fantasy reinterpretation of China's twentieth century, because that was the kind of story I wasn't finding on bookshelves".<ref name":1" />
Personal life
Kuang graduated from the Odyssey Writing Workshop in 2016 and attended the CSSF Novel Writing Workshop in 2017.<ref name=":4" />
She will pursue a graduate degree at the University of Cambridge as a recipient of the Marshall Scholarship.<ref name":0" /> As of May 2018, the draft of her second book is finished.<ref name":2" />

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