East City

“In ‘East City,’ we are embedded alongside rural workers living displaced lives in a Chinese manufacturing metropolis,” said the jury. “Anna Ling Kaye renders their world in crisp, efficient prose, guiding the protagonist, Lan Lan, as she finds work — and friendship — on the assembly line in a doll factory. Like the best fiction, this story is both attentive to its own specifics and filled with the universal shadows of human experience, gesturing outward at the stark reality of life for migrant workers around the world. ‘East City’ is a compassionate and electric story for these times.”