Taiwanese-American writer and academic Hua Hsu (徐華) has won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for his memoir “Stay True.” Hsu was born in Champaign–Urbana, Illinois to Taiwanese immigrant parents, and his memoir is about his coming-of-age experience in the San Francisco Bay Area. The time period of his book spans across his undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
The book describes his friendship with a Japanese-American classmate at Berkeley which was cut tragically short by a random act of violence. The Pulitzer award includes a US$15,000 (NT$460,000) cash prize.
Hsu is currently a literature professor at Bard College and a staff writer at the New Yorker. His work explores multiculturalism and portrayals of Asians in media, such as his 2016 work “A Floating Chinaman: Fantasy and Failure Across the Pacific.”