User:Lpier452

ENGLISH 4994 Maxine Hong Kingston

Biography:

Maxine Hong Kingston was born October 27, 1940 in Stockton, California. Born to first generation Chinese immigrants, Tom and Ying Lan Hong, Kingston was the third born but the eldest of six children born in the United States. Two older siblings died previously in China. From a young age Kingston was drawn to writing and won a five dollar prize from “Girl Scout Magazine” for an essay she wrote entitled “I Am an American”. Endeavoring to receive a higher education Kingston attended the University of California at Berkeley originally majoring in engineering, but eventually switching to English. In 1962 Kingston married Earll Kingston an actor and began a career in teaching high school. The two began a family the following year with the birth of their son Joseph Kingston. After relocating to Hawaii in 1967 Maxine began writing extensively finally completing and publishing her first novel, “The Woman Warrior: Memoir of a Girlhood among Ghosts”. --Lpier452 (talk) 18:38, 14 April 2009 (UTC)