Born in Los Angeles, Hanya Yanagihara spent her childhood between Hawaii, New York, Maryland, California and Texas. After graduating from Smith College in Massachusetts, she settled in New York and worked in publishing before becoming a journalist and the editor for Condé Nast Traveler and subsequently the New York Times style supplement, T magazine. Her debut novel The People in the Trees, published in 2013 to wide critical acclaim. Yanagihara’s second novel rocketed her into the literary scene: an enduring bestseller and a modern classic, A Little Life was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2016.