Chun Yu 俞淳

What was your favorite book as a child?

My favorite book as a child was Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It was the first foreign novel I had ever read, and I was completely fascinated to discover that a child on the other side of the world could think and feel so much as I did. It was my first realization of how universal our stories can be. Years later, that realization gave me the confidence to share my own stories of growing up in China with American readers and readers around the world in Little Green, written in English, my second language.

What was the original reason or motivation why you started writing creatively?

I felt driven by some unseen force to write. I was on a career path as a scientist working with biodegradable materials, but I always felt my calling was somewhere else. After much searching, I began writing something I thought might be poetry, very privately at first. About a year later, I gathered the courage to read at an open mic at the MIT Museum. From that moment on, doors began to open.

What was the most adventurous or thrilling thing you ever did/experienced?

Venturing into writing in a foreign language. Besides writing, it would be jumping into the cold San Francisco Bay and swimming year-round, rain or shine.

Do you listen to music while reading or writing? Why/why not?

I usually write in silence. But when I do listen to music, it’s Erik Satie. Almost all other music distracts me. There’s a mathematical beauty in the simplicity and elegance of Satie’s music that gives me space to think and lets the words come.