R. F. Kuang
Rebecca F. Kuang is a Chinese-American writer of mostly fantasy novels. She is especially known for her 2022 novel Babel, or the Necessity of Violence, which was placed at the first spot on The [New York Times Best Seller list|The New York Times Best Seller list], and won the 2022 Nebula Award for Best Novel. She has also won or been shortlisted for many other awards.
Kuang was born in China and schooled in Texas, United States, before she studied Sinology at Cambridge and Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar.
Background and early life
Kuang was born May 29, 1996, in Guangzhou. She immigrated to the United States with her family when she was four years old. Her father grew up in Leiyang, in Hunan province, and her mother grew up in Hainan province. Her maternal grandfather fought for Chiang Kai-shek. Her father's family experienced the Japanese occupation of Hunan during World War II.Education and influences
Kuang grew up in Dallas, Texas and graduated from Greenhill School in 2013. She said that China Miéville's books added adult fantasy to her teenage reading list. She attended Georgetown University, majoring in history, attracted by the college's well-known debating team after winning the Tournament of Champions. While in college, Kuang, aged 19, began writing Poppy War during a gap year in China, where she worked as a debate coach. The book was published shortly before her 22nd birthday. Kuang graduated from the Odyssey Writing Workshop in 2016 and attended the CSSF Novel Writing Workshop in 2017. She graduated from Georgetown's School of Foreign Service in June 2018. She spent the summer after graduation coaching a debate camp in Colorado.In 2018, Kuang was named one of 43 American Marshall Scholars, which fully funded her graduate studies in the United Kingdom. She used the first year of her Marshall Scholarship to study at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where she earned a Master of Philosophy in Chinese studies. The following academic year, Kuang applied her Marshall Scholarship toward study at University College, Oxford, where she received an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies. Kuang returned to the United States in the fall of 2020 to pursue a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale University., she was completing her PhD at Yale.
Kuang married Bennett Eckert-Kuang, a PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The couple met in high school.
She has been influenced by the works of Vladimir Nabokov, Kazuo Ishiguro, Susanna Clarke, and Joan Didion.
Literary works
''Poppy War'' trilogy
Kuang's debut novel The Poppy War, a Chinese military fantasy, was published by Harper Voyager in 2018 and is the first book in the Poppy War trilogy. The Poppy War has received mainly favorable reviews, with Publishers Weekly calling it "a strong and dramatic launch to Kuang's career". In October 2020, the first two books in the Poppy War trilogy were included in Time magazine's list of the 100 best fantasy books of all time.In December 2020, Peter Luo's Starlight Media, the U.S. film subsidiary of China-based Starlight Culture Entertainment Group, optioned the rights to adapt Kuang's Poppy Wars trilogy for television with SA Inc. producing. The TV adaption has been stuck in development hell since 2020.
''The Poppy War''
The Poppy War, a grimdark fantasy, draws its plot and politics from mid-20th-century China, with the conflict in the novel based on the Second Sino-Japanese War, and an atmosphere inspired by the Song dynasty. The Poppy War was nominated for the 2019 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.''The Dragon Republic''
Released in 2019, The Dragon Republic is the sequel to The Poppy War. The Nikan Empire begins to fall apart due to infighting and the Hesperians return. The reviewer for Fantasy Book Review wrote, "Kuang excels at wreaking emotional havoc while delivering a powerful meditation on war and survival." Publishers Weekly said that "Kuang brings brilliance to this invigorating and complex military fantasy sequel to The Poppy War."''The Burning God''
Released in 2020, The Burning God is the sequel to The Dragon Republic and the conclusion to the Poppy Wars series. Rin fights the forces that have torn her country apart into a civil war. A reviewer for The Fantasy Hive wrote, "Rebecca Kuang's conclusion to her debut trilogy, The Poppy War, is testament to her growth as a writer; not only is it a fitting close to an ambitious series." The reviewer for Publishers Weekly said that "he result is a satisfying if not happy end to the series."''Babel''
It is an alternative history novel, set in a fantastical version of Oxford in 1830s England. In the second week of September 2022, Babel was placed at the top spot on The [New York Times Best Seller list|The New York Times Best Seller list] for hardcover fiction, but dropped to the ninth spot the following week before disappearing from the list by the end of the month. Kuang's Babel was excluded from consideration for the 2023 Hugo Award along with Chinese Canadian author Xiran Jay Zhao's Iron Widow. The awards ceremony that year was held in Chengdu, China, and leaked emails later revealed that an administrator had recommended that books whose content might prove controversial in China be excluded from the list of nominees.The screen rights options for this novel were sold in early 2024 to wiip studios for a television and/or film adaptation with Temple Hill Entertainment producing.
''Yellowface''
Publisher William Morrow and Company stated in a press release that Kuang's fifth novel, Yellowface, follows "a white author who steals an unpublished manuscript, written by a more successful Asian American novelist who died in a freak accident, and publishes it as her own". The title of the novel, Yellowface, refers to the film industry practice of Portrayal of East Asians in [American film and theater|yellowface], in which white actors are used to portray Asian characters, analogously to blackface, in which white actors use makeup to portray black or African characters. Satirical, sharp and cynical, this book is Kuang's first foray into the literary fiction genre. Writing in the "Acknowledgement" section of the book, Kuang considers her book a "horror story about loneliness in a fiercely competitive industry."In the last week of May 2023, Yellowface debuted at the eighth spot on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list for hardcover fiction. In the first week of June 2023, Yellowface debuted at the fifth spot on The New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover fiction. The reviewer for NPR called the book "a well-executed, gripping, fast-paced novel about the nuances of the publishing world when an author is desperate enough to do anything for success." Writing for the New York Times, award-winning author Amal El-Mohtar wrote that the novel is "a breezy and propulsive read, a satirical literary thriller that's enjoyable and uncomfortable in equal measure."
The screen rights options were sold to Lionsgate Television in late 2024 with Karyn Kusama slated to direct and executive produce a potential limited series based upon this novel with Constance Wu, Justine Suzanne Jones, and Ben Smith announced as producers.
''Katabasis''
In February 2023, Kuang reported that while working on her doctoral degree at Yale, she was also working on her sixth novel, a fantasy about two PhD students who study magick at Cambridge University. After their adviser is killed in an experiment, the students travel to Hell "to rescue the soul of their can write their job recommendation letters". In an interview with The Guardian, Kuang calls the project "nonsense literature". During a November 2023 book promotion tour at the Brattle Theatre near Harvard University, Kuang stated that her upcoming book "... started as this cute, silly adventure novel about like, 'Haha, academia is hell.' And then I was writing it and I was like, 'Oh, no, academia is hell.'"The publisher HarperCollins described the book as a dark academia fantasy in which "Dante's Inferno meets Susanna Clarke's Piranesi." Book Riot named Kuang's sixth novel as "one of the most anticipated books of 2025". Katabasis was released in August 2025.
Obtaining an advance reader copy of Katabasis was highly prized among some readers. Early EARC reviews were very positive.
In an Elle magazine interview, the author described Katabasis as "a world of ideas, and liked the freedom to chase a logical paradox or a philosophical puzzle."
A week before the book was scheduled to be released, the screen rights options for the novel were sold to Amazon MGM Studios for development as a television series with Angela Kang set as writer and showrunner. Kang will also executive produce along with Kuang, Mandy Safavi, Ben Smith, and Jeffrey Weiner.
''Taipei Story''
In April 2023, she also announced that two additional books had been acquired by HarperCollins, a "historical novel and a fantasy," neither of which are Katabasis.Two years later, she finished the first draft of her seventh novel that is tentatively titled "Taipei Story" in April 2025. At a November 2024 University College Oxford literary discussion, Kuang described her book as a "love story set in the capital of Taiwan", a story that is unrelated to the 1985 Taiwanese movie of the same name.
The novel is a coming-of-age story about a college freshman who is doing a language study abroad program in Taipei. In another interview, Kuang stated that the book is "about language, grief, and coming of age." In a third interview, Kuang described the seventh book as "literary fiction". She also describes it as "a coming-of-age story set in a language school in Taiwan, which will be in the larky style of the American novelists Elif Batuman and Patricia Lockwood." "The main character, studying abroad in Taipei, doesn't learn Chinese before her grandfather unexpectedly passes." The tentative release date is in September 2026. Kuang wrote this book after the death of her grandfather.
Future works
In October 2025, HarperCollins announced that they had signed Kuang to a new four book deal, which included Taipei Story, until 2030.Awards and honors
In addition, Kuang has won the Compton Crook Award, the Crawford Award, and the 2020 Astounding Award for Best New Writer, and has been a finalist for the Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, Kitschies, and British Fantasy awards for the 2018 novel The Poppy War. Elle magazine called Kuang "a prolific phenomenon".In 2018, Barnes & Noble included The Poppy War on their list of Favorite Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of 2018.
In 2022, Kirkus Reviews and The Washington Post named Babel, or the Necessity of Violence one of the best science fiction and fantasy books of the year. Amazon, NPR, and Barnes & Noble named it one of the best books of the year, regardless of genre.
In 2023, Kuang appeared on the Time 100 Next list & was also nominated for the 2023 Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards' "Breakthrough Author" of the year.
Honors
Literary awards
''Poppy War'' series
- A collection of three episodes related to the series, "from Nezha's point of view"
Other novels
Anthology (edited works)
Short stories
- :The short story is in the Star Wars universe, about a Rebel Alliance defender on the ice planet Hoth named Dak Ralter.
Non-fiction
Academic lectures and symposia