Yiming Ma
Photo credit: Emma Norman
Yiming Ma was born in Shanghai and spent a decade in the tech and finance world before writing the dystopian These Memories Do Not Belong to Us, set in a world where memories are bought and sold. He attended Stanford University for his MBA, where he was honored as a 2025 Stanford Alumni Catalyst, and holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College, where he was named the Carol Houck Smith Scholar.
His stories and essays appear in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Florida Review, and elsewhere. He has been awarded residencies, conferences and grants from Millay Colony, Tin House, Sewanee, Vermont Studio Center and Canada Council for the Arts. His story “Swimmer of Yangtze” won 2018 Guardian 4th Estate Story Prize.
These Memories Do Not Belong to Us debuted 13th in Canadian fiction. It was named a Spotify Editors' Pick and featured in the Washington Post, NPR, Apple Books, CBC Books + Radio, Electric Lit, Strait Times and Foreign Policy.