User:Janamcburneylin

Jana McBurney-Lin is a freelance journalist and the author of My Half of the Sky.

McBurney-Lin Jana lived in Asia for fifteen years. She wrote for media in seven countries, including National Public Radio, Writer's Digest, Hemispheres (United Airlines), Islands Magazine, Singapore Straits Times, Japan Times and dozens of others. She was an editor at ALC Publishing in Tokyo when she met her husband, a native of southern China. They then lived in Singapore, frequently visiting his family in Fujian province, China.

American Booksellers Association chose My Half of the Sky as a Book Sense Pick for August 2006. Forbes chose the title for their book club. Foreword Magazine listed it as one of the top picks in their Book of the Year contest. And here are some of the things people are saying…

"A lot is expected of a young Chinese girl. My Half of the Sky by Jana McBurney-Lin is the story of Li Hui, a young girl who has just achieved marriageable age. She seeks to make the most of herself, but the expectations all around her make it difficult, as her parents seek to use her as pawn to their advantage, and she is faced with what she believes to be true love. She must balance career, romance, and family, all to somehow make everyone happy, a tough endeavor indeed. An engaging and entertaining read from beginning to end, My Half of the Sky is a poignant tale of the modern Chinese woman, and recommended for community library collections. —Midwest Book Review November 6, 2008 "You'll be rooting all the way for Li Hui as she struggles, ahead of the curve, to be her own woman in an emerging, modern China. Jana McBurney-Lin's My Half of the Sky is a beautiful, witty, touching debut novel." —Thomas B. Sawyer best-selling author of The Sixteenth Man, Head Writer of TV Series "Murder, She Wrote" "McBurney-Lin tells a wonderfully entertaining story with the traditional coming-of-age theme (which is experienced universally)...weaving in the cultural challenges of growing up in China's rapidly changing social system." —Mary Warpeha, US-China Friendship Association, Book Review, March 2010 "It is a rare women’s novel that sensitively describes the life of a young educated woman in modern-day China in its full complexity, without resorting to unnecessary sentimentalism. Jana’s deep knowledge of the realities of life in China and Singapore makes the reading extra rewarding. In fact, with every new page the novel gets harder to put down and you find yourself gobbling it up before you know it. Finally, the author has given a voice to the Li Hui in all of us, as we struggle for the golden middle between tradition and the modern momentum of our world." —Isabella Sluzek, Friends of the Museum Book Review, July 2008, Singapore

Jana now lives in the Santa Cruz mountains of California with her husband and four children. She's a dedicated participant in the Bay Area writing community, having served five years as President of the Peninsula Branch of the California Writer's Club. She also founded the Writers Camp for Kids and volunteers annually in the local schools to teach creative writing. She is working on her next novel.

External Links

Jana McBurney-Lin's home page Jana McBurney-Lin's blog