Hanya Yanagihara is an American author and editor known for her emotionally intense and deeply introspective fiction. Born in 1974 in Los Angeles, she grew up in Hawaii and other locations due to her father’s career as a physician. Yanagihara studied at Smith College and later moved to New York, where she built a career in publishing and journalism, eventually becoming editor-in-chief of T: The New York Times Style Magazine.

She gained widespread acclaim with her second novel, A Little Life (2015), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the National Book Award. The novel is known for its powerful portrayal of friendship, trauma, and resilience, earning both critical praise and strong emotional reactions from readers. Yanagihara’s earlier novel, The People in the Trees, and her later work To Paradise further showcase her interest in complex characters and moral ambiguity, establishing her as a distinctive voice in contemporary literary fiction.