Born in a small village in the North of Vietnam in 1973, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai grew up witnessing the war’s devastation and its aftermath. She worked as a street vendor and rice farmer before winning a scholarship to attend university in Australia. Upon her return to Vietnam, Quế Mai contributed to the sustainable development of her homeland via her work with local and international organizations including UN agencies.

Quế Mai embraces the full range of Vietnamese traditions in her creative works. She is the author of eight books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction in Vietnamese, as well as the translator of several poetry collections. The Secret of Hoa Sen (BOA, 2014) is her first international publication, which was followed by her debut novel in English, The Moutnains Sing (Algonquin Books, 2020). Quế Mai's writing has been translated and published in more than 10 countries and has received many honors, including the Poetry of the Year 2010 Award from the Hanoi Writers Association and a Lannan Literary Fellowship in Fiction. Quế Maihas a PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University, United Kingdom and currently divides her time between Indonesia and Vietnam. For more information about Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, visit her at nguyenphanquemai.com.