Born and raised in China, Xiaoyan Kang started to write plays in English while studying under Philip Gotanda at Berkeley. Her plays include The Words of Ants (Playwrights Realm Scratchpad Series, Alliance Theatre’s Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award finalist, Great Plains Theatre Commons, Jane Chambers Award runner-up), The Obituary (Sewanee Writers' Conference Horton Foote Scholarship, KCACTF V Julie Jensen Playwriting Award honorable mention), and Bound (BBC International Radio Playwriting Competition Regional Winner, O’Neil Semifinalist, KCACTF V Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award). Some of her short plays were developed at 24 Hour Plays: Nationals and KCACTF V. Xiaoyan is finishing her MFA at the Iowa Playwrights Workshop.