Emily Sun Li
Fiction
Columbus, Ohio
Emily Sun Li is a Chinese American writer with an MA in Children’s Literature and MFA in Writing for Children from Simmons University. Previously, she spent two years teaching English and studying Mandarin Chinese in Kaohsiung, Taiwan as a Fulbright scholar. Her experience in education started at The Taft School, where she taught high school English literature as part of the University of Pennsylvania’s Independent School Teaching Residency M.S.Ed. program. She studied creative writing/English literature and environmental science at Emory University, graduating summa cum laude.
Her nonfiction chapter book THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE FLUFFY: TRUE STORIES OF ANIMAL TROUBLEMAKERS released with Scholastic’s Clubs and Fairs division in Fall 2024, and her debut picturebook MR. CHOW’S NIGHT MARKET publishes in Spring 2026 with Penguin Workshop/Penguin Random House in a two-book deal. Her poetry is published by Button Poetry, Molecule, and Rigorous, and her writing has been recognized by the YoungArts Foundation, Voyage YA Journal, and the City of Boston. She has received support from the Fine Arts Work Center, the Key West Literary Seminar, Centrum, the Sue-Je Lee Gage Sunlit Residency for Human Rights and Social Justice, Tin House, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. When she’s not writing, she’s probably procrasti-cleaning, drinking milk tea, or traveling.
She is represented by Emily Forney at BookEnds Literary Agency.