Guest speaker Iris Yang will introduce her debut work of historical fiction, Wings of a Flying Tiger, at the Sedona Arts Center on Friday, December 7 from 4-5pm!

About the book (Wings of a Flying Tiger, historical fiction):
In the summer of 1942, Danny Hardy bails out of his fighter plane into a remote region of western China. With multiple injuries, malaria, and Japanese troops searching for him, the American pilot’s odds of survival are slim.
Jasmine Bai, an art student who has been saved by Americans during the notorious Nanking Massacre, seems an unlikely heroine to rescue the wounded Flying Tiger. Daisy Bai, Jasmine’s younger cousin, also falls in love with the courageous American.
With the help of Daisy’s brother, an entire village opens its arms to heal a Flying Tiger with injured wings, but as a result of their charity, the serenity of their community is forever shattered.
Love, sacrifice, kindness, and bravery all play a part in this heroic tale that takes place during one of the darkest hours of Chinese history.

About the author:
Iris Yang (Qing Yang) was born and raised in China. She’s loved reading and writing since she was a child, but in China, creative writing was a dangerous career. As famous writers and translators, her grandmother and her aunt were wrongfully accused as Counter-Revolutionary Rightists, so Iris had to choose a safer path—studying science. After graduating from Wuhan University and passing a series of exams, she was accepted by the prestigious CUSBEA (China-United States Biochemistry Examination and Application program). At age 23, with poor English, little knowledge of the country, and 500 borrowed dollars, she came to the United States as a graduate student at the University of Rochester.
Later, she received a Ph.D. in molecular biology and worked at the University of North Carolina. Although she’s published a number of scientific papers, she has a passion for creative writing, and her short stories have won contests and have been published in anthologies. Currently, Iris is working on a story based on her grandmother, who was the first Chinese woman to receive a master’s degree in Edinburgh in the UK. Besides writing, Iris loves hiking, dancing, photography, and travel.