Along with her French mother, her Chinese father, and her 'amah' (nanny), Tian faces dangers and hardships: war, imprisonment, separation, family illness, and hunger. The story's many settings include Kontum, Saigon, Shanghai (her former home), France, and New York. This is a 'coming of age' saga that follows Tian's life from the age of twelve through the next two decades. Murphy's debut novel, 1997's The Sea of Trees, centers on a young girl named Tian who is being held in a Japanese prison camp in Kontum, Indochina, in 1942. Paul Stuewe, reviewing Stories in Another Language for Quill & Quire, called Murphy's stories 'too coy and naive for their own good,' but noted that 'in a few cases the banality of her language and … her characters do coalesce into a telling whole.' Although Mary Soete, reviewing the collection for Library Journal, found the stories 'neither accessible nor comfortable in themes and style,' she did note that events are 'filtered through the transforming consciousness of children.' Sybil Steinberg, in an appraisal for Publishers Weekly considered the stories difficult reading but claimed that Murphy has a 'keen eye for small, mundane details.' Steinberg insisted that Murphy's fictional debut 'evinces a deadpan voice that powerfully taps the interior world of emotions and thoughts.' Her use of such serious themes involving child characters has drawn criticism at times.

Murphy's subjects include grief, death, sexuality, violence, and incest.

Giles Whiting Foundation, which bestowed an award of thirty thousand dollars in 'recognition of the quality of current and past writing as well as the likelihood of outstanding future work.' The seventeen stories in the collection-one of which is only a paragraph in length-involve young characters who experience adult-generated dangers. She is one of ten to receive the Whiting Writer's Award from the Mrs. Yannick Murphy is the author of the award-winning short story collection Stories in Another Language. Signed, Mata Hari (novel), Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2007.Ĭontributor to periodicals, including Antioch Review, McSweeney's, Agni Online and Southwest Review. Here They Come (novel), McSweeney's ( San Francisco, CA), 2006. The Sea of Trees (novel), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1997.Īhwoooooooo! (for children), illustrated by Claudio Munoz, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 2005. Stories in Another Language (short stories), Knopf ( New York, NY), 1987. Giles Whiting Foundation, 1990, for Stories in Another Language National Endowment for the Arts fellowship Chesterfield Screenwriting Fellowship (in conjunction with Amblin Studios). Education: Attended Hampshire College and New York University.

Signed, Mata Hari by Yannick Murphy