Ira Sukrungruang

Ira Sukrungruang (born June 23, 1976) is a Thai American who is a writer and professor at Kenyon College.

Sukrungruang was born in Oak Lawn, Illinois to Thai immigrant parents. His family is Buddhist. His mother was a champion bowler back in Thailand. She arrived in America a few years before his father. His mother came to America in 1968 to work as a nurse and moved back to Chiang Mai, Thailand after 36 years. He visits Thailand frequently. His father worked as a chemist in a tile factory.

Sukrungruang earned his Bachelor of Arts from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 1998 and Master of Fine Arts from Ohio State University in 2002. He is the Richard L. Thomas Professor of Creative Writing at Kenyon College. Sukrungruang has a son, Bodhi, and ex-wife writer Katie Riegel. Riegel, who was from central Illinois,

Sukrungruang has received numerous awards, including the Anita Claire Scharf Award for In Thailand It Is Night, the American Book Award for Southside Buddhist, and Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year in Nonfiction for This Jade World. He is the president of Sweet: A Literary Confection, founded in 2008, a non-profit literary organization with the aim of assisting marginalized people. He is also on the board of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP)—and Machete, an Ohio State University imprint that also focuses on marginalized people.

Works Non-fiction books

2015 American Book Award for Southside Buddhist 2022 Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year in Nonfiction for This Jade World New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Nonfiction Literature Arts and Letters Fellowship Emerging Writer Fellowship Richard L. Thomas Professor of Creative Writing at Kenyon College