Yiyun Li: Dear Friend, from My Life, I Write to You in Your Life

Do the writers we cherish come from another world? Yes, according to novelist and short story writer Yiyun Li. She believes that rarified writers like the poet Marianne Moore saved her from sorrow and suicidal ideation. Written about a time when she was hospitalized for depression, her book, Dear Friend, from My Life, I Write to You in Your Life(Random House), is a combination of memoir and essay. She started writing it as if writing back to the writers who kept her alive. But she discovered that she was actually writing to herself.

Photo by Alex Pieros