About

Hi! I’m Gene Luen Yang. Thanks for visiting my site! I began publishing comic books under the name Humble Comics in 1996. In 1997, I got the Xeric Grant for Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks. (If you’re interested in creating comics yourself, check out the Xeric Foundation. They’re a great organization!) Since then I’ve written and drawn a number of stories in comics. American Born Chinese, released by First Second Books in 2006, became the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award and the first to win the American Library Association’s Printz Award. It also won an Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album – New. The Eternal Smile, a collaborative project I did with Derek Kirk Kim in 2009, won an Eisner as well. My 2010 graphic novella Prime Baby was also nominated for an Eisner. In June of 2011, First Second Books released Level Up, a graphic novel written by me and illustrated by Thien Pham. In 2012, Dark Horse Comics will release Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Promise, with art by Gurihiru and story by me, Mike DiMartino, and Bryan Konietzko.  In addition to cartooning, I teach computer science at a Catholic high school in California.  Beginning in 2012, I will also teach at Hamline University as part of their MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults.

If you’d like to talk to me about my comics, using comics in education, or anything else, please contact me.