Stephanie Han

Stephanie Han is an author, speaker, and educator. Han's debut short story collection Swimming in Hong Kong (Willow Springs Books) won the Paterson Fiction Prize. The book was sole finalist for AWP’s Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction, the Spokane Prize, and the Asian Books Blog Award. Individual stories won awards from Nimrod International Literary Journal, Santa Fe Writer’s Project, and the South China Morning Post. Han holds the distinction of being the very first English literature Ph.D. graduate of City University of Hong Kong. She lives in Hawaii, home of her family since 1904. Share an interesting anecdote or detail about myself with my readers? I still know the quadratic formula because my father made me write it down 26 times. I am a good swimmer due to years of swimming lessons--I flunked swimming classes regularly, but my mother forced me to take them. Each story I wrote was rejected well over 100 times. I wanted to do the splits at age 5, but only did it at age 25. I think all of these facts clearly point to my belief that you can do or learn what you set out to accomplish, but not always in the time frame or under the circumstances that you might desire. The question becomes what do you seek to learn or accomplish--and why?