Ling Ma was born in Sanming, China, and grew up in Utah, Nebraska, and Kansas. She received her MFA from Cornell University. Prior to graduate school she worked as a journalist and book editor. Her writing has appeared in Granta, Playboy, Chicago Reader, Ninth Letter, Time Out, ACM, and elsewhere. A chapter of Severance received the 2015 Graywolf SLS Prize. She teaches at the University of Chicago.
