Maxine Hong Kingston was born in Stockton in 1940. Recognized as a major American writer of her generation, Kingston first received national attention with the publication of The Woman Warrior (1976), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and has been dramatized throughout the country. Her second book, China Men (1980), won the National Book Award and was a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize. Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book (1989), her first novel, won the PEN USA West Award in Fiction. Among her numerous honors are the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers Award and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. She was recently awarded the National Humanities Medal.