Geling is the given name; Yan is the surname.  Yan is pronounced “yen.” The G in Geling is hard as in “golf” and the “e” is a “shwa” vowel [ə], pronounced as the unstressed “e” in “the.”  The author gives her name in English in the usual Western fashion, with given name proceeding surname:  Geling Yan.  Her name in Chinese is given with surname first: Yan Geling.  In Hanyu Pinyin with tone marks, it is pronounced Yán Gēlíng. 

The surname Yan means "serious."  The first given name character Ge means "song," or in classical Chinese, also "to sing."  The second given name character Ling is a type of rare medicinal plant. Her name is written in Traditional Chinese Characters as 嚴歌苓. In Simplified Chinese Characters, it is written 严歌苓. To complicate matters further, the Library of Congress lists her under her name in the Wade-Giles Romanization system, so all her works and copyrights are listed under the name Yen Ko-ling.