Yiyun Li

Director Wayne Wang's "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" recently won the award for best film at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. The film, based on Iowa Writers' Workshop alumna Yiyun Li's collection of short stories by the same name, received the "Golden Shell" for best film at the 55th San Sebastian Film Festival in San Sebastian, northern Spain, Saturday Sept. 29, 2007.

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Li's collection of short stories, explores the lives of Chinese in China and in the United States. The collection had previously won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, PEN/Hemingway Award, Guardian First Book Award, and California Book Award for first fiction before being adapted for film.