2023 STars hall of fame

Shawna Yang Ryan

Author

Greer & Cowan Fundamental ES | Arcade MS | Mira Loma HS

Shawna Yang Ryan is an award-winning author and associate professor at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, where she previously served as Director of the Creative Writing Program. A former Fulbright scholar, she is the author of Water Ghosts (Penguin Press 2009) and Green Island (Knopf 2016), a critically acclaimed novel exploring Taiwanese history and identity.

Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Lithub, The Rumpus, and ZYZZYVA, and has earned honors including the American Book Award, the Association for Asian American Studies Book Award, and the Elliot Cades Emerging Writer Award.

A proud graduate of Mira Loma High School, Shawna continues to uplift underrepresented voices and stories through her writing and teaching.