Geling Yan is one of the most acclaimed novelists and screenwriters in the Chinese language and a well-established writer in English. Born in Shanghai, she served with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) during the Cultural Revolution, starting at age twelve as a dancer in an entertainment troupe.

After more than a decade with the PLA, she published her first novel in 1986 and has been writing constantly ever since. Her first book-length publication in English was White Snake and Other Stories, translated by Lawrence A. Walker and published by Aunt Lute. Her other novels in English are The Secret Talker, Little Aunt Crane, The Flowers of War, The Banquet Bug and The Lost Daughter of Happiness.

Many of Ms. Yan's works have been adapted for film and television, directed or produced by famous directors such as Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Feng Xiaogang, Ang Lee, Li Shaohong and Joan Chen. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, France's Société des Gens de Lettres, and the Writers' Guild of America (west).

Ms. Yan holds an MFA in Fiction Writing from Columbia College, Chicago. She has published over 40 books and has won over 30 literary and film awards. Her works have been translated into twenty-one languages. She has been subject to an unpublicized ban on her new work in China since March 2020, when she wrote an essay criticizing the Chinese government's handling of the COVID-19 crisis. She resides in Berlin, Germany and has founded a company, New Song Media GmbH, to publish her literary works and produce films outside of China and out of reach from Chinese government censorship.