American author David Wong Louie, "who drew on his experiences as the son of Chinese immigrants to create stories that explored identity, alienation and acceptance," died September 19, the New York Times reported. He was 63. Louie published one novel, The Barbarians Are Coming (2000), and one short story collection, Pangs of Love (1991), "but his work won awards and acclaim" as well as influencing younger writers like Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen (The Sympathizer). His story "Displacement" was included in One Hundred Years of the Best American Short Stories.
"His stories read now as if they were written yesterday," Nguyen wrote in a foreword for a forthcoming edition of Pangs of Love (University of Washington Press). "They remain powerful, moving, relevant, urgent, and they persist in that way because of the author's imagination, his capacity to tell a story, his wit and humor."
A UCLA professor emeritus of creative writing and Asian American literary studies, Louie "forged a powerfully eloquent voice that mapped with deep sensitivity and darkly comic wit, the trials and insights born of inhabiting and navigating the difficult and often invisible spaces between white America and Chinese America," UCLA wrote in a tribute.
Ali Behdad, the John Charles Hillis Professor of Literature and the director of the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies, said, "It is quite rare to find a great writer, an inspiring teacher and a wonderful human being in the same body, but David Wong Louie was the embodiment of that exceptional combination."