Mo Yan (born Guan Moye, February 17, 1955) is a Chinese author and the winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in literature. He is the first Chinese national from Mainland China to ever win this prestigious international award. Mo's work in hallucinatoric realism that merged folk tales, history and the contemporary Chinese won widespread recognition in China and the world.

Mo is best known in the West for two of his novels which formed the basis of the film Red Sorghum. He has been referred to as the Chinese answer to Franz Kafka or Joseph Heller. His pen name 'moyan' literally means 'keeping reticent'. His book titles include "Big Breasts and Wide Hips" and "The Republic of Wine". Some of his books have been banned in China due to controversial subjects corruptions and official decadence.

During his early life, Mo was forced to drop out of primary school and herd cattle during China's Cultural Revolution and was sometimes so destitute he ate tree bark and weeds to survive. However, the hardships and time spent in the peaceful countryside gave him the inspiration to write about life and society from a very unassuming position with untainted imaginations.