Yiming Ma
Photo credit: Emma Norman
Born in Shanghai, I spent a decade in the tech and finance world across New York, Toronto, London, Berlin and Johannesburg. Before writing, I was named a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum for my work at Pearson expanding access to affordable education for low-income families in Africa.
I am excited to be the debut author of the dystopian novel These Memories Do Not Belong to Us (August 12 2025).
I attended the Stanford MBA program, where I graduated as an Arjay Miller Scholar, and the Warren Wilson MFA program, where I was the Carol Houck Smith Scholar.
Beyond the novel, my writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, the Florida Review, Ricepaper and elsewhere. My story “Swimmer of Yangtze” won the 2018 Guardian 4th Estate Story Prize. My stories have been shortlisted for the Gulf Coast Prize, Ploughshares Emerging Writers Contest, Geist CanLit Prize, LitMag Virginia Woolf Prize, Florida Review Editors' Prize, and Commonwealth Prize. I have been awarded residencies and conferences from Millay Colony, Tin House, Sewanee and Vermont Studio Center.