Qian Julie Wang
Memoirist Qian Julie Wang Finally Found a Home With Her Fellow Jews of Color
Qian Julie Wang grew up in libraries. Coming to America at age 7, she was thrown into the brand new world of New York City. Soon, she was spending all her free time in the local Chinatown library, soaking up as much English as possible. It became her second home, a place of safety. Now, she’s telling her story for the first time — buoyed by the hope of reaching those in libraries who were just like her.
Wang and her parents were undocumented, and the 2016 election — which occurred just after she became a naturalized American citizen — spurred her to begin writing her memoir on her phone on the subway. Those subway snippets would become “Beautiful Country,” out September 7, a gorgeous and heartfelt tale of Wang’s childhood as an undocumented New Yorker. When she’s not writing incredible memoirs, Wang is a litigator working as the managing partner of Gottlieb & Wang LLP — a firm dedicated to advocating for education and disability rights.
Her story is a modern day Jewish American immigrant tale, and over e-mail we spoke about what it means to have this book out in the world, her work with the Jews of Color community at her synagogue, and the meaningful publication of “Beautiful Country” on Rosh Hashanah.
