My name is Esmé.
(pronounced Ez-May)
I’m a writer. My essay collection, The Collected Schizophrenias, was a New York Times bestseller; its publication is the result of having won the 2016 Graywolf Nonfiction Prize. My debut novel, The Border of Paradise, has received accolades and kind words from places such as LitHub, NPR Books, and the Chicago Review of Books; I was selected by Granta for their once-a-decade Best of Young American Novelists list of 21 authors under 40; in 2018 I received the prestigious Whiting Award. I write essays that have been published in the Believer, Catapult, The New Inquiry, Lenny, Hazlitt, and Salon.
Finally, my short story, “What Terrible Thing It Was,” was featured in the Best American Short Stories 2018 anthology.
This website is the place to be if you want to know more about my literary life. You’ll find links to pieces I’ve published, information about my books, dates for forthcoming literary events, press clips, and so forth. Dig in. (And if you want to learn about The Unexpected Shape™ Writing Academy, my three-month creative nonfiction program with guest teachers such as Hanif Abdurraqib, Leslie Jamison, and T Kira Madden, keep on scrolling.)
"To help manage and offer guidance, [Esmé Weijun Wang] started an online business focused on building legacy and resilience for creatives, offering e-courses in guided meditation and restorative journaling for writers — telling stories about her own stories as an emerging writer living with challenges and limitations."
Are you an ambitious writer living with limitations?
You can also find me as the founder of The Unexpected Shape™ Writing Academy, my signature three-month writing program where I teach workshops and provide community, office hours, and other resources for ambitious writers living with limitations such as disability and chronic illness. Learn more here.
Here, explore what I have to share about my literary life.
Do both! Either way: welcome.
P.S. To find links to articles about me and podcasts I’ve been on, as well as media-ready photographs and contact information, please visit the Press page.
