Michelle Dammon Loyalka

Michelle Dammon Loyalka is an award winning journalist who  has lived in China since 1997. Her new book, Eating Bitterness: Stories from the Front Lines of China’s Great Urban Migration, (University of California Press) focuses on issues related to labor, migration and urbanization in China. She is a contributor to the soon-to-be released book of essays, Chinese Characters: Fast Changing Lives in a Fast Changing Land (ed: Jeff Wasserstrom and Angilee Shah, University of California Press). Her work on the psychological repercussions of China’s rapid development has earned her both an Overseas Press Club scholarship and the O.O. McIntyre Fellowship. While in China Ms. Loyalka compiled and edited a daily feature section for BusinessWeek Online for six years. She has freelanced for publications including The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Inc., Fast Company and the San Francisco Business Times. In China she has published essays in local newspapers, appeared on a variety of talk shows and co-hosted a call-in radio program in Mandarin. She is also the author of One Family, a language learning textbook for children used in schools throughout Guangdong Province.

Ms. Loyalka has extensive business experience in China in education and technology. She served on the board of directors of the Concord Educational Network in Zhuhai, worked as a department head at Calikai Software in Xi’an, and launched a business consulting company in Xi’an’s booming new High Tech Development Zone. She holds a master’s degree from the Missouri School of Journalism and currently lives in Beijing.