Ruthanne Lum McCunn

Ruthanne Lum McCunn is an American novelist of Chinese and Scottish descent, best known for Thousand Pieces of Gold, her 1981 biographical historical novel based on the life of Chinese American pioneer Polly Bemis in the American West. Born in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1946 and raised and schooled in Hong Kong, she later returned to California, where she has worked as a writer and teacher and continues to live in San Francisco.

McCunn’s work focuses on Chinese and Chinese American lives on both sides of the Pacific, and her award-winning books have been translated into over ten languages and published in more than twenty countries. In addition to Thousand Pieces of Gold, her publications include the novels Wooden Fish Songs, The Moon Pearl, God of Luck, and Chinese Yankee: A True Story from the Civil War, as well as the nonfiction works Chinese American Portraits: Personal Histories, 1828–1988, the children’s book Pie-Biter, and Sole Survivor: A Story of Record Endurance at Sea.